The making of the cover design for Reality in Advertising by Rosser Reeves

Overview• Process

The illustrator sends in first sketches.

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Unfortunately, neither one fits: the client wants to see a cool metaphor for the power of advertising.

Client: The book is about advertising and is for ad people. You can make sure that it is evident from the very first look at the cover. Take for example the Hathaway shirts ad with the man with an eye patch. It’s known worldwide, it became advertising classic. Have a look at the works of Ogilvy and other masters. Maybe you can find some inspiration there.

Rejecting the idea to draw a pirate since a pirate with an eye patch is perfectly natural, whereas the Hathaway shirts advertising works because the patch looks odd and unexpected.

Making a sketch: an eye patch and a shirt on a mannequin.

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The client approves the idea. Cleaning up the picture and sending for typesetting.

The typesetter receives the illustration with a brief. We need a typical cover with a traditional layout, so the mock-up gets created fast.

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Project manager (after taking a quick look at the printout): The client wanted this cover to be different from their traditional publications.

The chief typesetter suggests to write the title in the style of the illustration. The type designer starts working on the lettering.

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Showing two variants of the cover with quickly produced lettering to the art director and the client.

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Both choose the same design. Finalizing the letters while talking to the type designer to make sure the result looks good.

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The type designer suggests ways to rewrite some of the letters. Fixing the title, adding the final illustration, typesetting the rest of the text. The editor fixes typos, the chief typesetter watches over typesetting. Adding some gloss and it’s done!

Getting the art director’s approval and sending to the press.

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