craving grace & the power of design

my latest book design {in print} came this week & i could not wait to crack this baby open for a good read!

if any of you are new to reading my blog, besides being a wife, mommy, and creative director of Life Verse Design, i am also proud to be a book designer for Tyndale House Publishers. i worked in-house for 7 years (see some of my portfolio here) & once the babies came along, i became a freelancer, working from home.

so, yes, i get the best of both worlds and i am forever grateful. i love books & i love Tyndale.

there are so many things about book design that i love. one of which is, i guess, the power of it. you see, i always judge a book by it's cover. how can a visual person like me not?! another thing i love is that no 2 jobs are alike (unless you are creating a series), but really ... there is no such thing as boredom in book design!

it has also been a privilege to work with authors whom i admire, and as a book designer, an author's encouragement can mean the world to you. to know that you (the visual person) truly connected with the author (the wordsmith) is a magical moment.

here are lisa's own words concerning my cover:

When I saw the design, I thought, "That's exactly what the story is." The imagery captured so well the abundance of God's grace pouring out, which was exactly what I was trying to get across in the book. At the time I was still in the middle of some edits, and had been frustrated because I couldn't seem to express a few key points in the right way. But seeing the cover gave me the motivation to keep going, and I didn't stop until the message matched the image. So thank you, more than you know, for being a very important part of the process. I'm so grateful.

wow. thank YOU lisa for your huge encouragement, both to me & to my entire Tyndale design team and all you other designers out there... there is power in your designs!

if you would like to see my other concepts which i had created for this title, go here.

if you would like to get to know lisa more, go here.

if you would like to PURCHASE THE BOOK, go here.

if you would like to "like" craving grace & lisa on facebook, go here.

oh, and one last fun tidbit: those are my sticky hands on the cover. i sat on a stool in a pretty little dress, holding the jar of honey as my art director literally POURED the rest of the honey over my hands and it trickled down the dress. one of the most interesting photoshoots i have been a part of & particularly funny as people in the office at Tyndale were walking by wondering what on earth we were doing. cover photo is shot by the magnificently talented stephen vosloo.

go buy a copy of this wonderful book and allow His grace to pour over you too :)

grace & peace,
julie