Against Happiness
Designer: Jennifer Carrow
Publisher: Sarah Crichton Books / Farrar Straus and Giroux
Typefaces: Didot and ITC Franklin Gothic
Specials: Only the unique trim size (5x7.5).
Genre: Readers who are against happiness I suppose. Definitely not the self-help crowd.

Here is a great cover we've all seen before. The simplicity and clarity in this design is something I have admired for a long time. It's refreshing to see a design simplify as it moves through the creative process. Below are some of Jennifer's thoughts to her approach to this jacket. Thanks Jennifer!
—Jason Gabbert

What is the book about?
Against Happiness questions America’s addiction to happiness while arguing the necessity of melancholy in our culture. Specifically how these darker moments have added greatly to the history of art and literature.

Were there any constraints placed on you by the client?
None at all. The publisher was amazing and decided we didn’t need to have the subtitle on the jacket after she saw the design.

Were there any steps taken before you started designing?
My initial ideas after reading the text had to do with imagery involving popped balloons and the classic smiley face button. I found some yellow balloons and a button at this novelty store near my office. The popped balloons looked pretty bad. It wasn’t the idea I had in my head at all. After that I took the button outside, jumped on it and photographed it on the street as if it had been discarded. The most bizarre thing about that afternoon was that while I was in Union Square, squatting down to photograph my faux damaged button, I saw this smiley face sticker on the ground.





Was there a clear working process that led up to the final?
When I sat down to design with the photographs, I kept coming back to just the field of yellow. I liked the idea of the jacket as a button, something iconic and instantly recognizable. After a few variations with the type, I came up with this design.

What would you say makes this an effective design?
It communicates quickly with so few elements and stands out nicely on a crowded bookshelf.

What makes the trim size unique, and who chose this size?
It's one of my favorite sizes, probably because we only use it on a few of our books and it feels so intimate. The size was determined by the publisher
early on.

Is this printed with pantones?
I had looked at a lot of PMS swatches for this, but in the end I realized that process yellow and process black were perfect. The other yellows were all too complex. It really just needed to be bright and generic to mimic the cheaply produced buttons.

Anything else you want to add to what you said about this cover?
With everything that has happened across the publishing industry these past few months, I really appreciate that this design is both effective and economical. An all type, two color jacket will not work for every project, but when it does, it's nice to know you've created a great jacket for the book while saving a little money.


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