The request was for a “branded look” for Franzen, while giving each novel its own distinct look. I’d designed the jacket for the author’s best selling novel, Freedom the publisher hoped our studio would have a fresh take. Everything they’d shown had been rejected, and they were in danger of missing their pub date. What was your initial brief for this project?Ĭharlotte Strick: Last April, Alex reached out about redesigning Jonathan Franzen’s five backlist tiles. Sometimes a short deadline is the best one. The covers were so good that they were instantly approved. And that we needed them in three weeks… EEK! But what they were able to do in that short period of time was incredible. I didn’t have to give them a full brief on what to do other than to say we wanted something layered and with more depth to them. Having worked on some of Franzen’s previous books they had a great knowledge and understanding of not only Franzen’s writing but also what he could be looking for. This is when we reached out Strick&Williams. I reached out to a really talented photo researcher in the industry and she came back with some incredible images for each book, but we all ended up feeling that the photographs were almost too on the nose and didn’t leave enough room for interpretation. We liked the it was photographic, and could connect back to The Corrections as well as Crossroads. There is something timeless about this design by Lynn Buckley and felt like a good jumping off point. This felt a little too vintage for the author:ĭirection three connects us back to the iconic jacket for The Corrections: Direction two uses the work of Katrien De Blauwer.

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