Welcome to The Hypothetical Library

The idea for this blog is to create an opportunity for a part-time book cover designer (me) to collaborate, with a wide range of amazing, contemporary writers on a project outside of their normal body of work. 

The catch is that these books will never really exist. 

I ask each writer to provide flap copy for a book that they haven’t, won’t, but in theory could, write, and then I design a cover for it.

I am not a writer. I have tried over the years, but it is simply something I can not do well. I am, however, a designer—and it’s my combined love of books and graphic design that brought me to the book cover as an outlet for any literary ambitions I may have had.  I have been designing book covers on and off for the past 8 years as a kind of pressure valve to my career in print advertising. Looking back I’ve seen how the two disciplines have influenced one another. In both, a single image combined with some brief text can convey an expansive narrative. 

One of the frustrations of book cover design is that you are usually assigned projects and authors by a publisher. The competition is fierce, and assignments are not always exciting or ideal. Work is offered and you take it. The Hypothetical Library is my workaround. With this project I hope to collaborate with as many wonderful writers as I can get—freed from the constraints of various publishing houses, editors, and budgets.

I want to thank all of the writers who have, and will contribute to this strange project, but special mention must go to Richard Nash, and Shanna Compton. My direct involvement into the world of writers and book covers began many years ago, because of them, and the small press legend, softskull. Without Shanna, and Richard, I would have never met so many amazing writers. 

The goal and mission of this blog is that it should be fun for all involved, the author, myself, and you the viewer. So let’s have some fun.

Hypothetically yours,

Charlie Orr

Comments

[Joanna]

I like the way you signed your post :) I relate to the difficulties with writing when you're a designer...I mostly do web design but it's nice to finally meet a art cover designer....good luck with your Hypothetical Library project I hope it works great for you !
Hypothetically your reader,
Joanna

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