Book Cover Evolution

You don't think awesome book covers start out that way, do you? Print Magazine talked to several cover designers in order to get a better picture of the design evolution of some recent covers. It's not a bad thing, despite the title "Kill Your Darlings": one designer wisely said, "It’s actually a good exercise to have to redesign something," something I remember being told back when I was in theatrical design classes. Working on one design, you rule out everything else; but what do you get when you rule out everything else and the most obvious option? When that best final option actually hits the bookshelves, designers will be happy to know that it's very unlikely anybody had an epiphany and produced that cover the first time out of the gate: the amount of work exceeds what actually shows up in print.