Mara Lubell, Girl Genius
I love Mara Lubell. She takes my ideas and shows me what they look like.
Three years ago, Bob Mayer and I started a writing partnership that we wanted people to know was a real partnership, not one person doing all the work and the other person donating a name. To brand that partnership, we decided we needed a logo. Something that summed up who we were. So we went to my business partner, Mollie and said, “We need a logo,” and she said, “I have just the person,” and introduced us to Mara. (Rhymes with Sara.) We told her who we were and what we wanted and said, “Knock yourself out,” and she came up with our logo, which we loved:
Then I worked on another collaboration with Anne Stuart and Eileen Dreyer, and Mara did the graphics for our website. They were so beautiful, our publisher used them for the cover, one of the best covers of my career:
Besides the UMF blogsite, Mara has designed beautiful websites for my friends, Anne Stuart, Patricia Gaffney, and Susan Holloway Scott, and for Bob and me at CrusieMayer.com.
All of which made me think. I love Mara’s work, and I wanted more of it, but I already have a website (to be updated as soon as I get around to it), so I looked at the book I was working on, Agnes and the Hitman, about a newspaper food critic, and thought, “Agnes should have a logo for her ‘Cranky Agnes’ column.” And I went to Mara and once again, her work was so spectacular, that my publisher used it on the book cover:
Which brings me to Dogs and Goddesses, the book I’m working on now with Anne Stuart and Lani Diane Rich. There’s a bakery in the book called “Dogs and Goddesses.” We decided it needed a logo, so we went to Mara and got the name logo for the bakery (just the words that would be on the front window, the mugs, and the aprons), the elaborate logo that would be used on larger things, and then Mara threw in another logo with our names on it for promo purposes:
Isn’t it gorgeous? We’re crazy about the logo and about everything else shes does. To see more of her work, from websites to stores to everything your business ever needed, go here.
Mara. We love her.
That is soooo cool. I love it. The colors are wonderful, and the goddess figures, just spectacular. I love the way she unfailingly visualizes your concepts. Go, Mara!
That is awesome, really. I love everything about it, and I haven’t even read the book.
Amazing logo. May I have that on a coffee mug?
Beautiful! Another winner - Has your publisher seen this one yet?
Wow, she’s good. I think it’s perfect, down to the different “stars” on each goddess and that the goddesses are holding coffees and a muffin. (Not to mention the paw print flowers.)
Nicely done, Mara!
Ha! I just realized that she turned the papyrus into paws. ;+))))
Beauty
Oh my!! It’s amazing.
Love those womanly figures too. Real women - yey!!!
Makes my eyes happy. Yay!
these are all over on cafe press, right? so we can find images of things we love on stuff we’d use around the house? ’cause I SO WANT a cranky agnes mug. and a dogs and goddesses t-shirt.
pleeeeeeeease?
Wow! The colors, the font, it’s perfect!
Love! She is wonderful at capturing exactly what you describe!
That is fabulous! I want to frame it. Mara is a goddess too.
If the publishing houses haven’t hired her to do covers yet, they should. All of the work she’s done for you is amazing. Beautiful!
Oh, this is so lush and wonderful and perfect. *sigh*
Absolutely love it. Helps that it is from a design era that I adore. The more I look at it, the cooler I think it is as I see all the little details.
I’m with Lee…. I know I can get a Cranky Agnes apron at CafePress, but I’d really like some Dogs & Goddesses Bakery stuff too! And as long as I’m making exorbitant requests… I wouldn’t mind a “Tucker for Mayor: More of the Same” bumper sticker
She does an excellent job. She needs to go around the country and do seminars for cover artists..They need her insight for agreeable visual detail and color!
What a talented lady, this is truly a piece of art. I love the subtle details. Lovely, lovely work. Can’t wait for the book!
That design is a feast for the eyes, especially after the cover disaster in the previous blog. There is a touch of Egyptian rather than Mesopotamian around the vegetation, and the font has a hint of Art Nouveau, but the blend is perfect - witty, mysterious, evocative. Some version of this just HAS to be used for the eventual cover, surely?
Why is it, when the author herself, and a cross-section of interested readers (us) are pretty unanimous about good and bad graphic design in relation to books and covers, that publishers’ art departments evidently occupy some parallel universe, where bad is good and good is bad? It’s a mystery.
Each time you look at it you see a little something you missed . It’s genius. You going to get a star tat ?
I adore this. The paw prints used as almost a flower is inspired. I love the shape of the goddess figures and the coffee and muffins being held aloft are great. The woman is a genius
Can I pre-order this book yet?
My favorite part it is the patterned red font and paw prints. Very Crunchy for my eyes!
GREAT WORK MARA!
All I can say is
WOW! WOW! WOW!
Oh wow. Just wow. Amazing. And yes, I need a bakery mug too, says she who is sipping tea from her Cranky Agnes.com mug as she types this.
Truly creative genius. Great use of color and design! As Tigress said, “A feast for the eyes.”
I, too, want a mug with the logo on it. Can this be accomplished??
Mollie says it’s too early to do CafePress, but we’re thinking about it. There will definitely be D&G stuff in the Cherry store. And the Agnes mugs are available now along with T-shirts, etc.
No star tat, Jill. I love Shar’s star but not the way I loved Mare’s butterfly. Plus Shar doesn’t get one, so it wouldn’t be research . . .
Wow!
Love, love, love it!
Mara rocks! I went to their website and checked out her other work. It is amazing!
She should have done the Large Print “Agnes and the Hitman”! Our temporary blindness could have been avoided! lol
It’s great! Mara must have read the post about the “Glittery Hoo-Ha”(sp?).
The logos detail the important aspects of the books, although not knowing much about the Dogs and Goddesses WIP the imagery used shows there are dogs, a muffin (or cupcake), steaming coffe mugs and three women in the story. Everything is in harmony with each other. Brilliant choices to entice a reader. I’m looking forward to reading this one.
Wonderful! I’d also like to place an early order for the mug. Can’t wait for the book.
Absolutely gorgeous.
The woman is a bloody genius.
WOW! She is amazing.
Oh, I think it has to be a muffin, don’t you? CMS mentioned the Goodnight theory of muffin-ness on D&G, and it’s just too perfect to pass up.
Not that there’s anything wrong with cupcakes - it just makes me think of Stephanie Plum and Joe Morelli (Janet Evanovich, for those who haven’t kept up with THAT series).
I was going to say, “Babe, you have to find a marketer! Terry Pratchett has Disc World figurines — you should have D&G coffee mugs with that on it.” (-: Then, reading through the comments, I find that you are ALREADY doing that!
And you know what’s super cool? My sister’s birthday is coming up, and I think she needs a Cranky Agnes coffee cup. My life has officially been made easier! Thank you Mara! And thank you Jenny, super-collaborator!
(You know what I’d like to see next — ’cause nobody is ever satisfied for very long? Insert-your-own-name cups. A Cranky Micki cup with the hair red and the glasses black. (-: Just kidding!)
Once again Mara hits it out of the ballpark! Honestly, she should be giving seminars on cover design. As long as said seminars don’t interfere with designing your covers - she’s a one-woman revolution. ‘Tis spectacular and gorgeousness, and not just cuz I’m partial to the primal goddess and lotus shapes (I based my tattoo on those same images). Wow.