This is 10 Questions, an interview series where we get to know the designers from the directory a little better. Today, meet Sophia Chunn! Sophia is a multidisciplinary designer with a background in print design who currently works at Penguin Random House (Random House Publishing Group). See more of her beautiful work here!
1. Visually take us through your professional journey. Create a diagram that summarizes your career to date.
2. If you HAD to devote one day per week to a side hustle or creative pursuit, describe how you would spend that day. . .
Sophia Chunn: I know this wasn’t exactly the question, but I have so many pursuits and interests that instead I am going to designate a different one per day of the work week:
Monday: writing—in addition to designing books and reading them, I also enjoy writing them. You may wonder: would you design covers for your own books? And the answer to that is I have no earthly idea what I’d want any of my covers to look like.
Tuesday: wheel throwing/functional pottery making—not always calming, but always peaceful.
Wednesday: House & DIY Projects and plant care—this may sound like an afternoon, not a whole day, but I have over 50 plants :,)
Thursday: Zeus day! I’m really passionate about working with and training my dog. If I had more time (and money) I’d invest in some kind of weekly sports or agility training with him. Probably dock diving. And if you think that wouldn’t suck up a whole day, argue with the wall!!! (Actually argue with me because I love talking about this.)
Friday: Sophia, the illustrator—I’m not sure this counts because I already illustrate for work on the regular, but I’d like to be an illustrator separate from being a designer as well as in conjunction with.
Naturally, the question most unrelated to cover design is my longest answer. TLDR it’s complicated
3. If you couldn’t design book covers for a living (or hold any job in the creative field), what’s another career that you think you would’ve excelled in or have wanted to try?
Sophia Chunn: As per my diagram, I actually started college with the intention of becoming a high school English teacher. I realized how much money teachers got paid in my state and fell in love with art and design, and eventually changed my trajectory towards the famously lucrative and high-paying publishing industry! But I always think about teaching as The Career That Got Away. I deeply love my job now, but I think I would have loved being a teacher too.
4. Do you show your designs to any non-coworkers before submitting them? Who and why?
Sophia Chunn: I show them to my girlfriend, because she works in the sales department at one of the Big 5 and is always good for a sales-like comment that really brings me back down to earth. In all seriousness, it helps me look at covers with non-design, non-artist eyes
5. What’s your ideal auditory environment while working?
Sophia Chunn: To get heinously specific, I am most productive with Vampire Diaries on in the background—it offers the perfect balance of familiarity and entertainment where I know I can tune out and in as I work, but going from episode to episode helps me maintain momentum while I tackle my to-do list. If it’s not TVD, it’s probably another show I’ve already seen. And then my third option is an audiobook or music, but that’s only when the tasks require less “new information processing” space in my brain.
6. Spread good design! Who is one (non-book-cover) graphic designer or artist that we should check out?
Sophia Chunn: Simon and Moose! (aka Cymone Wilder)
7. What’s one creative skill you wish you had time to pursue so that you could incorporate it into future designs?
Sophia Chunn: Blender!!!! 3D rendering and art! Gosh I think it’s so cool, and it would come in handy on so many occasions when the stock selection is just not cutting it. I told myself in college that I would learn it, but I never did, and still haven’t 🙁
8. Name one author you would love to design for before you retire.
Sophia Chunn: Not to poach from the AMAZING Laura Eckes but Tracy Deonn, if you’re reading this, call me.
9. Some of us don’t think we have a certain design style. Some of us think we do. If you think you have a style, how would you describe yours?
Sophia Chunn: I don’t think that I do— I actually think that kills me sometimes because if I did, it would be easier to pinpoint what to hire me for? Maybe I do and I just simply do not have the self-awareness. I know the type of books I gravitate towards most to work on, but also I pride myself in trying my best to chameleon into whatever kind of designer or art director the book needs.
10. We all know that great covers get killed. How often does something you submit get chosen in the very first round, and how often do you have to go through multiple rounds before you get an approval?
Sophia Chunn: I don’t think I’ve had but two or three instances where I submit round one and they come back and say “Yup! Send it to print!” Usually the concepts are striking the right chords, or close to the right chords, but the execution gets revised and tweaked. Kind of like those scenes in movies where they pass a paper back and forth to negotiate—usually, we all agree on the idea, we just have to get the numbers right, so to speak.
The INABC Exit Question. You’re at a party and you just told a stranger that you’re a book cover designer. What’s the most common response you get from people when they hear this?
Sophia Chunn: They usually say, “That’s cool, can I see?” So I don’t usually tell people because I am shy and do not want to spontaneously launch into an impromptu portfolio presentation 🙂
