SIMON & SCHUSTER
Three covers, four years, one face
OVERVIEW
TYPE
Art Direction
YEARS
2017–2021
A book cover gets one frame to do what a campaign does across twenty. In 2017, Simon & Schuster's design and editorial team came to Daryna with a series about girls who are not what they appear to be, and asked for a single image that could carry it.
The partnership ran four years and three covers, entirely remote. Daryna produced, photographed, and modeled each one, assembling the hair and makeup team every transformation required and directing from behind the camera and inside the frame at the same time.
“I’m so excited to share the cover of Girls with Sharp Sticks,” Suzan Young writes. “It’s at once high fashion and unsettling—a perfect combination! And to see the true change in expression, cover one side at a time. Chilling and gorgeous!”
The brief asked for beauty and unease in the same face. On the first cover, a second face surfaces from beneath a hand. On the second, a fracture opens at the neck onto something machined underneath. Suzanne Young, the author, noted that covering one side of the face at a time changes the expression entirely: gorgeous from one half, chilling from the other.
Readers responded to the covers before they responded to the books, saying so openly in reviews. The imagery went on to seed a cosplay trend on Instagram, readers restaging the covers on themselves.
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“I highly recommend working with Daryna. We’ve worked on 3 projects together, and I consistently find her to be a talented and reliable collaborator with brilliant creative vision. ”
- Sarah Creech, Art Director @ Simon & Schuster
