Lately I’ve been scouring the net for freelance work, and the place that seems to be the most friendly–at least to me–is Guru.com. I say they’re friendly because I’ve been bidding on jobs left and right and they don’t charge to do that. Of course, the bid credits are limited and now mine are exhausted, but not before I was able to lock down my first gig through them.

Bourbon Penn is a fine new literary journal based out of Austin, Texas. The job they posted was for a cover designer for their first print issue, and based on my work with both book design and literary journals (I founded the journal Monkeybicycle back in 2002 and still work on it as much as possible), they accepted my proposal.

The stories in issue one of Bourbon Penn are sometimes dark, sometimes funny, and always really good. Their site incorporates a lot of dramatic, surreal photography, so I wanted to keep that in mind as I designed their cover in order to tie the book to what they’ve already established as an aesthetic. And while the concept they signed off on (pictured below) ties into that overall feel, I think it speaks a little more to the stories in the book than the photography on the website–it’s a fine companion. The overall brand remains in tact and I’m excited to see how well the book does. If you have a few bucks to spend on something new to read, I recommend investing in Bourbon Penn. It’s inexpensive, but the content is worth a ton. Order the book here.

 

Tags: book covers, Bourbon Penn, Design, Literary, publishing