Closer You Are is a biography of Guided By Voices Bandleader and Artist,
Robert Pollard.

The goals for this project were to reinterpret & design a book of our choosing. The original cover for Matthew Cutter’s book visually felt a bit underwhelming, and I wanted to bring some of the energy and spontaneity that Robert Pollard’s art aims to communicate on such a visceral level. The objective was to emulate that visually.

My design takes cue from his collage-heavy aesthetic and addresses the mystery behind the songwriter/artist’s process. By creating a visual layering that literally appears out of focus, the text becomes the main character, in tandem with the subject of the story.

I began this project by scanning various segments of album covers and inner sleeves. My original aim was to create a collage-based cover made up from pieces of these scans. In the end, I decided on a simpler, hazier feel, which again tied in to the source material, and the mild debauchery of stories shared in the book.

I think the process of cutting back and giving space to breathe is the hardest part of design, especially when you’ve put so much effort out in the front end, only to cut your original ideas out. My earlier iterations were a lot rougher, as I was going for more spontaneity, which in theory lent itself to his approach to art and music. It was a definite learning experience, but I enjoyed designing both the cover and the insides. It gave me a look at what fun it can be to design books.