The cover design team for our anthology project was tasked with designing the book cover. Vanessa came up with the initial concept – an image of a tree and its shadow that represented its roots, along the silhouette of a hand. Given our group’s name, Writers in Trees, and our theme, roots, the cover would involve arboreal imagery, but the rest was up in the air. Vanessa’s concept inspired and excited me for our anthology and for its cover.
I scoured all the photographs I had ever taken of trees to find suitable images. There were many and I wished that I could make use of several of them.
In Photoshop, I created variations of the cover that WiT members had voted on and critiqued. I wanted to try a couple of things out, and as a result, all these drafts were a little overdesigned.
I had to simplify. The black and white concept that we had started with was calling out to me.
I was also given feedback that the foreground hand silhouette graphic should have more detail, with more articulate and posed fingers and shadows. Because the free-to-use graphics on the internet did not pass muster, I took my phone, turned on the flash and snapped a photo of my own hand. With only a little bit of editing to make my thumb thinner, I hoped it made for a model hand along the likes of David Duchovny’s in Zoolander.
The tree on the final cover is from Sir Dan’s Quad in University College at U of T. The background was somewhat painstakingly edited out.
The photograph was taken in October of 2015, a little more than a month after I arrived in Toronto and started my studies.
And finally, here is the synthesis of all these photographs. I had never thought that the cover of our anthology would turn out to be as personal to me as its contents, which include not just the short story that I have contributed, but also the work that we have collectively put into bringing this collection to life over the past two years.
Do pay attention to the write up on the back cover, which features the proverb that inspired our name, a small piece of poetry written by Leah, which encapsulates the journey of reading this entire collection, and the names of everyone in Writers in Trees who contributed to this anthology.
We hope you enjoy reading it.
Paavan Agarwal is a writer and editor. Currently a copyeditor working in India, he studied English and physics at the University of Toronto. His interests lie in postcolonial studies, modernism, and postmodernism. He is passionate about form, but also content. He loves trying to help others’ work reach its full potential, as well as his own. He is currently working on two speculative fiction short stories and editing a third. He watches movies in his free time and has many unsolicited recommendations.
The views and opinions expressed in blog posts are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of all WiT members.
Writers In Trees 