We are so incredibly excited. I’d like to give a big thank you to the Design department for doing such a lovely job.

I love how the button, the obscured face, and the hand-painted sign all tie in with Blue Thread, while the overall look of the cover still remains unique. Its retro feel and unusual layout will help it stand out on shelves.

A quick anecdote concerning the design process: the designers had a bit of challenge finding a good location for the shoot. It turns out that all the colleges in the area have brick buildings that look nothing like UC Berkeley’s. On a fluke, we found one of the few public buildings in Portland built in the Spanish Renaissance Revival style: the Title Wave Bookstore, a used bookstore in Northeast Portland which supports the Multnomah County library system. I’m happy that this small part of the Portland literary scene made its way onto the cover.

Now that we have a cover, we are on to making sales kits. More about that next week!