Time Out of Joint by Philip K. Dick
Cover design by Deco Farkas
What was your inspiration for this cover design? Where did your ideas come from?
This book is all about a family and kids that go to a shed at the back of the house and they build this amateur radio out of scrap pieces if I’m not mistaken. This idea of the old vintage radio is what inspired me the most. I was influenced by the old machinery pieces and aesthetic of old vintage radios. I thought these elements could translate well in a book cover.
Does the fact that this is a dystopian science fiction novel influence your work in any way? Does it give you more freedom or it a harder task?
I think the fact that it is science fiction doesn’t make the work any harder or easier. Each story proposes a different type of cover so the approach the publisher wants to take on it is usually my biggest guiding point. But for example, knowing that a science fiction book has a bit of humour to it that can translate into the cover design is always helpful as well.
This design you created is for the hardback print edition of this book. Is creating the cover any different for hardbacks and paperbacks, are you involved in that decision at all, or does it not make a difference to you when it comes to designing?
The choice of making it a hardback or paperback is never mine, the publisher always comes to me with that decision already set in stone. Knowing whether it’s a hardback or paperback doesn’t make a massive difference to me. At the time of composing the drawing or thinking about the aesthetic I’m going to use, the process is pretty much the same.
The colours in this cover are very vibrant. How do you work with colours? Do you determine what you’re going to be working with from the beginning or does it come to you later on?
For this cover specifically I knew that towards the end I would be using a lot of these small dashes across the canvas. So I knew from the beginning that I could use a colour that wasn’t so vibrant in order to add that stark contrast later on in Photoshop with a different colour.
The volume in the radio switch button and the dashes all across — that was all added later on, so I had the space and opportunity to add vibrance and more colour during the post-production stages in Photoshop.
This is what I usually do — wait until the image is in Photoshop do add that final ‘punch’ of colour to give the final design even more strength.
And finally a question I always like to ask, did you have any happy accidents during the design of this cover or anything that surprised you?
I think I didn’t have any accidents in this case because most of it was pretty well calculated from the beginning. I went down a path that was pretty much laid out from the first sketches. I think I give myself the luxury of having happy accidents and room for mistakes that could turn into positive changes when I’m painting in my studio or doing graffiti on street murals — so basically when I don’t have a client that I’m doing the work for.
Sometimes these accidents can be happy accidents or sometimes they can be very sad accidents, you never know. So with this project I didn’t want to risk too much, I took the most risks in Photoshop when experimenting with the colours and the final touches.
You can find out more about Deco and his work on his website and social media.
