Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory NUCHCHA PRAPHIN STARTS HER JOURNEY WITH READING AND IS ALLURED BY THE RELATION BETWEEN IMAGES AND THE WORLD IN LETTERS AND BECOMES A DESIGNER OF BOOK COVERS THAT ENVELOP AND REFLECT THE BOOK CONTENT
TEXT & PHOTO COURTESY OF NUCHCHA PRAPHIN
(For Thai, press here)
WHO
Nuchcha Praphin / Pun. I’m a graphic designer and illustrator.
WHAT
Book cover design is currently my main focus.
WHEN
I have enjoyed reading books since I was a child and aspired to be a writer since elementary school. In middle school, my interest in working in a publishing house developed and I began thinking about becoming an editor. However, during high school, my interest shifted towards how images and letters could work together. I realized then that I wanted to try designing book covers.
Four Thousand Weeks
WHERE
Preaw Publishing was the publishing house that gave me the opportunity to design a book cover from start to finish for the first time.
WHY
I believe that graphic design is a discipline that requires content as its core foundation. It is something that cannot develop and grow on its own. For me, books hold the most powerful content in the world. They tend to be deeper and more emotionally impactful than other types of content. This allows the finished work to be versatile and at times, even extreme. It can be soft and sweet, cool and composed or wild and mad. Working with the medium that can express such diverse contents is the most enjoyable for me.
Dan Brown
The Death Notice
How would you describe your work?
When it comes to appearance or approach, I don’t believe I have a fixed, specific style. Books are detailed projects in themselves, making it impossible to use the same style for every book cover. I aim to create covers that resonate the most with the content of each book. Sometimes, this involves using a style that I haven’t used before or may not be familiar with. I think the most common thread in designing all the covers I have done is probably the thought process rather than a particular style.
Decagon House Murders
What is your inspiration and guiding principle for each creation?
Designing covers is about creating something for the exterior, while my principles lie in the answers found within. When I have a creative block, l tend not to seek inspirations externally but rather reread the manuscript until I find elements that can be used. The things that determine what a cover will look like are already in there.
Samishisa no shuuhasu
The Confectionery Mysteries
What project are you most proud of?
It isn’t exactly the project I’m most proud of but my favorite cover so far is the one I created for ‘Short Stories’ by Bodthajorn. It is a book where every part, from the front and back covers of the jacket, jacket flaps, cover sheet, ribbons, and content, seamlessly works together without any conflicting elements. The opportunity to be able to work on an entire process, and choose everything and have it come together so harmoniously doesn’t come by very often. And I had great fun while I was working on that project.
Short Stories
Containable Leaves
Which stage of the design process do you like the most?
I like the start and ending the most. The starting stage involves immersing myself in the content and looking for what I will use until I see the first clear image in my mind that this is what the book will look like; as in the style, the mood. The images I have tend to be very clear, almost like it’s the final, complete work. And when I have that, it makes me really eager to start working. However, once I start, challenges and problems may arise. So, the ending stage is when everything falls into place, and I’m filled with the feelings of great relief and satisfaction.
Tokyo Tower
If you could invite a ‘creative’ to coffee, who would you invite and why?
There are so many creative individuals in the world that choosing is difficult. I would choose anyone from the creative realm and we wouldn’t even have to talk about work. Just observing what they’d choose on the menu and how they handle a coffee cup would likely bring a lot of happiness in itself.
