In Miniature by Simon Garfield
Cover design by Pete Adlington
In Miniature: How Small Things Illuminate the World is a nonfiction book written by Simon Garfield and published by Canongate. Simon is the award-winning author of a range of nonfiction bestsellers including Mauve, Just My Type and On The Map.
Simon Garfield writes books that shine a light on aspects of the everyday world in order to reveal the charms and eccentricities hiding in plain sight around us. After beguiling fans with books about everything from typography to time, from historic maps to the colour mauve, he’s found his most delightful topic yet: miniatures. Simon explores the small things in life that we’re likely to never think twice about, from tiny Eiffel Towers, to toy soldiers and a doll’s house created for a Queen, to Model villages and minuscule railways.
When walking into Waterstones on my usual Saturday rendez-vous (pre lockdown 2.0) I would have never guessed that a nonfiction book about miniature objects would have caught my attention, but it did. And once I picked it up, it went straight to my ‘to buy pile’ that I have the habit of carrying around while browsing, and I started reading it on the tube on my way home. In short, this is the type of book that you didn’t know you wanted but that you absolutely need.
The cover of this book was designed by Peter Adlington. Pete is now a Senior Designer at Faber & Faber after working at Canongate for six years. In the interview below, he walks through his creative process for designing this book cover.
What was your general goal and inspiration behind this cover?
The base general goal for any cover is to represent the book in an intriguing, arresting and desirable way. A bit like crossing the road is Stop, Look, Listen; a cover ideally would say Stop, Look, Purchase. To expand a bit for each, In Miniature wanted to show fans of Simon Garfield that he’s got another book out, it’s what you’ve come to expect from him, top quality, easy to read, factual non-fiction and you are going to love this as much as his other titles. For people who might not have read him before we’re saying the same thing but having to work harder in the desirability of the book. His previous books, which were also the main inspiration really, were all beautiful objects and took their inspiration from the content (Maps, Letters, Clocks). Stylistically, vintage matchboxes were the inspiration for this title, which was a total gift if I’m honest as everyone loves that aesthetic. You could do a bad job and it would still appeal…
For In Miniature I was pretty certain I wanted to do an illustrated jacket, so I read the book, pulled out any things mentioned which could be fun on the jacket and then started sketching out compositions that could work. The initial route I was working on got shot down by Simon as he felt it was too young but I’ll talk about that later.
Did you have a lot of freedom or were there certain guidelines from the publisher Canongate set in the brief you had to follow?
Simon is a well-established author with a good few books to his name and his books often followed a certain aesthetic. His covers often flirted heavily with nostalgia, using imagery that evoked a certain period pertaining to the content.
For In Miniature the brief was to follow on from the cover I had previously done for Simon on his book Timekeepers and go down the nostalgia route with a smart composition. Simon’s books tend to be rammed full of information so carrying little details to titillate the viewer’s interest is a common thing on his titles, On The Map (not a Canongate title, designed by Nathan Burton) is a shining example of that and was something I bought through in Timekeepers. It has to be said, it’s quite a difficult thing to do and On The Map succeeded far better than my own attempt for Timekeepers I think.
The colour red is very prominent in this cover. Is this something you set out from the start, or does it develop as you go along?
With In Miniature, I mentioned earlier that my initial route got shot down and I had a very different colour palette at the start. When I went down the Matchbox route I had some classic vintage matchbox colour combinations to choose from but I went for the one that feels the most nostalgic for me which was red, white, yellow, black. So in this case colour choice was a more pre-defined choice although strong colour was always going to be a feature.
Usually colour will develop as you go along but I will say that it rides on the wave of trends. If you look at the non-fiction tables in Waterstones you’ll notice that there are large numbers of books that use a slightly off-white or black. I think this is because you don’t want the colour to be a signifier, you want the purity of the ‘idea’ of the cover to be the voice, but this goes out of the window with narrative non-fiction as we then are wanting to convey mood in the same way you do in fiction.
I can see that the hardback has a jacket that opens and reveals a matchbox underneath. How is an unconventional design like this discussed between you and the publisher?
Usually, unless the brief stipulates a specific approach using finishes, the designer will present ideas in the design meeting and give their idea on how finishes could be utilised, they will then be provisionally approved and have to go through a profit and loss process to see if the book will be profitable despite expensive print costs. For this book I presented my initial designs with the short jacket and printed case underneath and thankfully Simon is a big enough author to command a decent initial print run so, due to economies of scale, the book could take an expensive set of finishes like this. Basically, you present your grand ideas and it’s usually shot down by sales or production who know it won’t make budget if we incur extra costs. I was lucky in this case and I would argue that it pays for itself in desirability.
Of all the miniature objects mentioned in the book, what was it about the Eiffel Tower that stood out to you? I have to say I’m guilty of owning a miniature Eiffel Tower keychain from years ago
I think for the reason you’ve just mentioned! It’s a ubiquitous symbol that everyone recognises so you’ve got that immediate relatability. It’s also a really good shape for the concept as it’s tall like a match and is recognisable even when it’s super tiny like on the back. It’s just perfect, a gift really. Although what I will say is that for the actual book cover underneath the jacket, the illustration is more realistic and that was a bloody nightmare to execute.
Finally, a question I always like to ask; did you have any happy accidents while designing this cover?
Usually yes but this cover was actually pretty meticulously planned and executed I’d say. Does rejection count as an accident? Probably not, but him rejecting my initial route was the best thing to happen to that book for sure!
You can read more about Peter’s work on his website.
