Shooting the perfect cover

Last week, three of us from Stone Arch Books—one senior designer, one editor, and one creative director—headed to downtown Minneapolis for a photo shoot. We were working on the covers for the new Claudia Cristina Cortez books that will come out next July. It was a long, fun day. The day before, Kay, the book’s designer, did a ton of shopping. She had to pick out things for the model to wear, and other props for the covers—things like pizza boxes, balloons, and sunglasses. When we showed up at the photographer's studio, we set up the props and clothes. Then, once the model and her mom arrived, we got to work! We shot the four covers one at a time, and took as many as 100 photos for each cover. After the photographer finished taking pictures for each cover, the three of us looked at all of the images on the computer and decide which ones we liked the best. It was a long day, involving many wardrobe changes, but we had a great time. And we love our Claudia model. Marcelia is 13, and we chose her over other models because she seemed so friendly, as if lots of different kinds of kids would like her. Though she’s young, she’s very professional. She’s confident as she’s being photographed, which helps us get the shots we need. Plus, she’s exactly how we imagined Claudia—fun, friendly, and with a great smile! The next step is for Kay to use the photographs to create the Claudia covers. She’ll pick a background color, add the photograph, use a cool font to showcase the title, and add interesting design elements to make the cover pop. Once the back cover copy is added, the cover’s done, and soon, it’ll be in the hands of Claudia fans all over the country!