For Manshen Lo, there’s something incredibly special about illustrating for books and magazines. The illustrator, whose back catalogue spans animation, website identities and artful character studies, has spent the last few years predominantly drawing covers for publications. She loves the medium for the way it pushes her to read “with a different mindset” and how it allows her to work with physical materials – “like many other nostalgic people, I tend to prefer tangible material,” Manshen tells It’s Nice That. It’s the sort of work that helps her connect with other artists. “Making cover art builds a meaningful connection between the author and my work; I get to look at things from a different angle, because I have to translate from their literary world.”
As is to be expected, the act of visually reimagining someone’s words involves a fair amount of interpretation, a fact Manshen which tells us is often quite “instinctive”. This is because, sometimes, all she’s given to work off is a few paragraphs of text. Luckily, it’s a process that the illustrator has grown to love: “I enjoy capturing the poetic atmosphere hidden between the lines,” she says. Moreover, in a time when book covers are becoming more and more homogenous, the illustrator has also become pretty good at sticking to her own style. “I have to admit I’m not very aware of trends,” she muses, “most of the time, I just put my head down and do my own thing.”
On the flip side, Manshen is also aware of how much power the cover has to influence its audience. As we’ve learnt here at It’s Nice That, it’s common practice in the visual design world to eschew the proverb of ‘not judging a book by its cover’. Manshen adds, “It’s a great privilege to be allowed to make an image that will undoubtedly tint the audience’s view about its content.”
