The folks at Hearhear.us chat with Penguin‘s executive art director in two parts, responsible for making sure those of us who wander into the bookstore come back with a Penguin book because of the eye-catching covers he designs. But he’s ever mindful of what is considered “good” and “bad” design, and all those bold covers might really be blending into sameness. “I’m stubborn to a point, and if I realize that this author or publisher adamantly want what they want after I’ve tried to sell a more tasteful avenue that I believe will strike the same chords and reach the same amount of people, then I give in,” Buckley explains. “But I still do my best to make sure it’s crafted perfectly, and to make myself or whatever designer I’m working with to embrace the challenge of making large gorgeous type. I think in this field it’s easy to lose sight of how powerful a cover like that can be when not hacked out.”
Some of the covers Buckley and his team have been responsible for include Zadie Smith‘s ON BEAUTY, A.M. Homes‘ THIS BOOK CAN SAVE YOUR LIFE, and Sean Wilsey‘s OH THE GLORY OF IT ALL – to name a scant few of the “600 covers per year” they work on. But one time he ended up working on one book he wasn’t supposed to: RATNER’S STAR by Don DeLillo. “When I was designing Don DeLillo’s back list, I got so excited by the project that I just started designing anything DeLillo. When I brought this cover to my packaging meeting my publisher looked quizzically at my editor and my editor looked back at me saying ‘uhh Paul, it’s gorgeous and all, but we don’t own this book, never have.'”