Accidentally On Purpose
Designer: Kimberly Glyder

Kimberly Glyder gave me this great write-up on one of her recent covers. I love her references to hand crafted elements, it tends to be the case that the best way to find the perfect image is to create it yourself. Thanks Kimberly.
—Jason Gabbert

I was assigned this jacket about a year ago by Allison Saltzman at Ecco. The book can pretty much be summed up by the subtitle: “A one-night stand, my unplanned parenthood, and loving the best mistake I ever made.” Originally, the editor had an initial concept, which happens sometimes, based on another cover the editor found interesting. I find these comparisons to other covers tricky to navigate when there is a fixed idea that people already have. The consensus was to find a photo that had some kind of ironic element to it. Unfortunately, finding the perfect image is never an easy thing to do. I read the manuscript and it proved helpful. My only other direction was not to go “too young or sassy.”

Immediately the concept for the cover came to me while reading. I think I sketched it out after reading just a few pages. I really wanted to juxtapose the woman drinking with the baby drinking (showing what the cause and effect was of the woman’s drinking...). I drew the woman initially with a wine glass, but basically the design remained the same. I always find it a bit more rewarding when there is some kind of hand-done element on the cover, though it’s not possible with every book title you’re given. One big challenge was to come up with a couple more comps to show. I knew the silhouette idea was strong, but you can never be sure how marketing, editors, the publisher, etc. will react so I struggled with a couple more photo-driven ideas before submitting. The comps went over extremely well (even with the author) with no serious objections other than adjustments to the silhouettes. I think both Allison and I were both relieved by the approval.

That’s where the comical aspect of the design came in. We tried the woman holding a wine glass, beer bottle, and finally a martini glass. Problems arose with the specific tilt of the head (was the woman throwing her head back too aggressively to drink...what did that suggest?), moving the drink in closer, and so on. I had to have my husband take multiple photos of my profile with various alcoholic beverages and glasses to use as a reference for the profile silhouette.

A disclaimer, no alcohol was actually consumed during this design job...

Overall, I think the silhouette design hit the right note of irony and kept it literary and adult looking.