Interview with Mick Brownfield

Mick Brownfield is an illustrator who works in advertising, editorial design and publishing. His work and visual language is inspired by comics. I was interested in interviewing him mainly because of the work he did for Vintage Books (seen in my previous blog post).

1: Due to the recent rise in digital publishing do you think the physical book is losing popularity?

I'm afraid so.

2: Does this affect your design process? Influence your approach to designing the physical book?

No.

3: Would you find the front cover of a digital book more limiting to design for?

Yes.

4: Would you take advantage of a book's physicality in your design?

If suitable.

5: How do you use your design to interest the modern audience in a classic book?

Either bring it up to date, or emphasise the period feel.

6: Do you think that interactive book designs are most suited toward a younger audience? Could they still interest adults?

Yes and No.

7: Matte vs. gloss?

Matt always.

8: What was the process of designing a book that is 3D?

It was all done in B/W layers. I pretended I understood the technique but I'm not sure I did.

9: On a whole, do you prefer reading ebooks or the physical copy of a book?

Physical, but ebooks can be useful on holiday or while travelling. Also they are cheaper and immediate. A real book can be compared to a vinyl album as opposed to a CD

or download.

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Though Mick's answers were short and sweet, I still found his insight helpful. I really liked the idea behind his last comment - "A real book can be compared to a vinyl album as opposed to a CD

or download" - and my research seems to confirm with his theory. People are starting to look at physical books as though they are for a special occasion, which is being reflected in their new designs.