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It was the first book cover Id ever done, so I was really excited.
Then they sent over a PDF of the manuscript.
Its a young-adult book, you should be done.
I was like, Im done but its so good, I keep going back.
The character is so lovable and so different from the protagonists of the books I grew up reading.
Now Im seeing a ton of illustrated black people on the covers of YA when I go into bookstores.
I was sitting there readingGossip Girl, which I had no business reading at the time.
Tell me a little bit about the creative process.
Did you know exactly what you were going to do with this cover once you got the assignment?
Just use Angies description and create Starr [the protagonist], and put the Jordans on her feet.
Ive never done Jordans that was the most intricate part of it.
I had to go in and create these details.
Angie was like, I need my Jordans to be on point.
It was really fun though.
It was the easiest turnaround Ive ever done in a project.
In the original, the poster covers the womans eyes.
If you dont see the facial expressions, you could put yourself in it a lot easier.
I just wanted everyone to be able to relate to it.
For the book cover, though, they told me, We need you to add eyes.
I didnt want eyes on it, but it has eyes on it.
That was the art direction.They were right, really.
The eyes make her more of a character.
This is the actual girl, youre going to learn about her story.
How did you decide what expression to give her?I didnt want her eyes angry or worried.
That was a conversation.
I never make people who are angry or aggressive.
This is just a direct message Starr is trying to say.
Her eyes are direct, but solemn.
Not any throw in of hate in them.
They changed it up a bit.
I wanted to ask you about that.
Thats how I felt.
Its kind of a bummer.
If I saw that, as a teen, it would be very disheartening, a little damaging.
Were you thinking about that when you were working on your illustration of Starr?Sure.
Was designing book covers something youd always wanted to do?[Laughs.]
And Id argue that it didnt have to be that deep.
I feel like it should be very simple, straightforward, to the point.
And then you might read into it what you like.
That was what Id always argue.
Now were good, but I dont think I was his favorite student at the time.
Hes probably very surprised that my illustration made it as a book cover.
This was ten years ago.
It was so conceptual.
And the books we read and created covers for, I didnt relate very well to them, either.
Social media wasnt big when I was at Parsons.
I dont think it was even thought of that there would be protest art as a book cover.
We talked about Russian Constructivism, Lenin, propaganda and protest art, which mirror each other.
This really influenced what I do.
Do you think of the cover you designed forThe Hate U Giveto be propaganda?Yes.
That means its doing something.
