The Girl Who Ate Kalamazoo
Author: Darrin Doyle
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Art Director: Michael Storrings
Typefaces: Stymie, Freehand 575
Special Treatments: Gritty matte lamination with the title and byline debossed

You may be wondering why we are only showing one cover and no preliminary sketches… it's because Jason is so amazing he doesn't ever need to do more than one cover. In fact, sometimes he does half a cover and the publisher loves it so much they'll just approve it and finish it out themselves. Okay, I'm exaggerating (I think)… but this is a great cover with a great write-up! Thanks Jason!
—Jason Gabbert

I guess my trajectory as a book cover designer first began with a book cover design course instructed by Gabriele Wilson during my junior year at Parsons. Pretty much from the onset of the class I knew this was what I wanted to do, or at least attempt. Upon graduation, an instructor was kind enough to pass along some contacts, through which I met Rodrigo Corral. As luck would have it, Rodrigo contacted me later that summer and asked me to spend some time in his studio. I worked with him for the following fifteen months. Thereafter, I landed at St. Martin's Press.

At times darkly comic and at other times profoundly tragic, "The Girl Who Ate Kalamazoo" is a novel about the Mapes family whose youngest child, Audrey, devours the entire city of Kalamazoo, Michigan. However, the real tragedy of this story is not the destruction of the city, but rather, the quiet disintegration of a family that did not quite know how to love.

Before any attempt to design, I began research on any and all things Kalamazoo, from souvenir plates and spoons, postcards and maps, to advertisements, brochures and packaging; looking for suggestions of color, type and imagery that could be used in the design.

In thinking about the act of eating, I became obsessed with the idea of using a spoon with a bite taken out of it to illustrate themes of the novel: hunger, family and consumption/destruction. This seemed to make sense given that Audrey begins her Kalamazoo eating spree with a beloved diner. I thought the local flavor of a greasy spoon might also be a good way to frame the image. I imagined a kitschy paper placemat with retro typography, substituting what would be local advertisements with endorsements. Ultimately, I abandoned this direction as it seemed too detached from the notion of family and I returned to the manuscript.

A few days after eating the diner, Audrey begins to devour entire houses along with the contents; in effect erasing the entire lives of families. The house was an obvious yet suitable image to symbolize a family. The combination of the house resting in the shallow bowl of a spoon, poised as if to be swallowed, seemed to best represent the profound hunger for love that is present throughout the novel and the eventual consumption not only of Kalamazoo but of the Mapes family itself. In the end, this was the only direction presented.

The typography was inspired by slab serifs found on postcards (Stymie) and scripts found on advertisements, brochures and packaging (Freehand 575), and intended to convey a sense of nostalgia and kitsch. The title was split into two lines and shaped into symmetrical arcs meant to mimic an open mouth.

I was pleased with the design at this point, except that the bite mark was missing. Admittedly a subtle effect, which may be lost by some readers and was lost by some involved on the project internally, I requested the deboss of the title and byline on the front cover to mimic the impression of teeth. And with a bit of luck, it was approved.

In the end, any success attributed to the final cover design is largely due to the support of the publisher, art director, editor and author.

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