The book cover designer talks to CR about joining the industry in his 30s and why he continues to work on his skills, hone his craft and push himself with every project
For designer and illustrator Jared Bartman finding a signature style is a ‘nice-to-have’ rather than the goal, and instead his focus is on pushing his design “tendencies in a new direction”. Inspired by many different creatives, Bartman is keen to try his hand at various techniques with a view to developing “several different stylistic modes or registers I can work in to fit different design briefs”.
This adaptability is partly informed by the fact that Bartman was a “latecomer” to the field. Having spent over a decade in non-design fields, he has a degree in English and music, and a bootcamp certification in UX/UI design, the area of design he initially worked in when he made the pivot in 2020.
“In retrospect, I wish I’d gone to school for graphic design, but I didn’t really start getting obsessed with design and illustration until I was around 32,” says Bartman, who is based in the US. “But I’ve always loved book covers. I remember really starting to take notice of book cover design as a field of work when I first encountered covers like Peter Mendelsund’s Franz Kafka series, Charlotte Strick’s cover for Roberto Bolaño’s 2666, and Rodrigo Corral’s full-book design for Jay-Z’s Decoded.”
All images: Jared Bartman. Top: Crop of Shadow of the Mammoth by Fabio Morábito; Above: All Consuming: Why We Eat The Way We Eat Now by Ruby Tandoh, both published by Penguin Random House
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