Portfolio
Book covers and interior page design by Karyn Kloumann
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FIERCE: Essays by and about Dauntless Women
Award-winning book published by Nauset Press, 2019. Cover Design by Karyn Kloumann. Cover Image by Organic Photography.
Thirteen essays are published in this book—coincidentally an ideal number for a coven, primed to change the tenor of the conversation about gender roles and societal norms. The idea of a coven also led to the concept for the cover image, a variant on a witch’s ladder, based on a circa 19th century object of twine tied with feathers found in an attic in England alongside six brooms and a chair—it’s purported use was to steal milk from a neighbor or to cause death, although contemporary users reportedly practice with the intention of positive outcomes. Like a witch’s ladder, FIERCE straddles the space between positive and negative, by advocating for awareness and destruction of untenable and unjust power structures to create a more evolved and principled society.
FIERCE won the grand prize for Non-Fiction in the Publisher's Weekly BookLife competition, 2019. The book also gold- medaled in the Nautilus Book Awards for social justice and is a finalist in three categories for the CIPA Evvy Awards to be announced September 10, 2020.
A Poet in Washington Heights by Christopher Atamian
Published 2017 by Nauset Press. Cover Design by Karyn Kloumann. Cover Art by Egon Schiele, Public Domain.
This award-winning volume of poetry is by a gay poet, Christopher Atamian. He loved the artwork of Egon Schiele, and we discovered that some pieces were in the public domain and could be freely used. The ribbon edge to the left adds structure to the composition and extends across the spine and the back cover. The font choices needed to capture the tenor of the poetry inside the book: modern, clean, strong but with a certain aesthetic delicacy; it was equally important to compliment the artwork and evoke a sense of the text without competing with it.
Dit Huis is Bewoond (This House is Inhabited) by Virginia Mayo
Published 2012 by Nauset Press. Cover Design by Karyn Kloumann. Cover Image by Virginia Mayo.
This photography monograph by Virginia Mayo, an AP documentary photographer based in Antwerp required modern, elegant, humanist typography to complement, not compete with her incredible images of Doel, a deserted town in Belgium. All of the photographs are black and white, and the color choices are black, white, with blue accents inside the book. Blue was chosen as befits the melancholy one would might experience seeing a ghost town.
Looking for Small Animals by Caitlin Grace McDonnell
Published 2012 by Nauset Press. Cover Design by Karyn Kloumann. Cover Image: Public Domain.
The cover design for this volume of poetry subtly evokes seeing a wild party of small animals through a telescope or a microscope.The cover font is Vulpa (another nod to animals, as it is Latin for "fox") and it has quirky foxtail terminals (as seen in the descender of the letter "K", for example). It's playfulness suits the tenor of the poetry inside.
Armenian-American Sketches by Bedros Keljik
Published March 2020 by The Press, University of California, Fresno. Cover Design by Karyn Kloumann.
The public domain image of the Chrysler Tower is photo-montaged with a strip of Armenian carpet to show the integration of the Armenian immigrant experience in America at the turn of the century. Note in the bottom left hand corner how the rug detail melds with the building. The title typography is reminiscent of old newspaper type, the byline reminiscent of a handwritten signature of that era.
The National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) announced “Armenian-American Sketches” by Bedros Keljik was one of two books selected as the winner of the 2020 Dr. Sona Aronian Book Prizes for Excellence in Armenian Studies.
The Armenians of
Musa Dagh by
Vahram L. Shemmassian
Published in 2020 by The Press, University of California, Fresno. Cover Design by Karyn Kloumann.
Musa Dagh is a mountain in the Hatay region of Turkey, and when the order came to deport Armenian people in July 1915, six villages successfully thwarted attacks for 53 days. French allies in the Mediterranean spotted 4,200 survivors and evacuated them to safety just as their food and supplies were running out.
The cover depicts a map of the region with an Armenian family, rising from the shadows of obscurity as the subtitle proclaims. Paperback and hardcover lithocase editions were commissioned.
The Armenians of
Musa Dagh by
Vahram L. Shemmassian
Published in 2020 by The Press, University of California, Fresno. Cover Design by Karyn Kloumann.
Musa Dagh is a mountain in the Hatay region of Turkey, and when the order came to deport Armenian people in July 1915, six villages successfully thwarted attacks for 53 days. French allies in the Mediterranean spotted 4,200 survivors and evacuated them to safety just as their food and supplies were running out.
The cover depicts a map of the region with an Armenian family, rising from the shadows of obscurity as the subtitle proclaims. Paperback and hardcover lithocase editions were commissioned.
The Armenians of
Musa Dagh by
Vahram L. Shemmassian
Published in 2020 by The Press, University of California, Fresno. Cover Design by Karyn Kloumann.
Musa Dagh is a mountain in the Hatay region of Turkey, and when the order came to deport Armenian people in July 1915, six villages successfully thwarted attacks for 53 days. French allies in the Mediterranean spotted 4,200 survivors and evacuated them to safety just as their food and supplies were running out.
The cover depicts a map of the region with an Armenian family, rising from the shadows of obscurity as the subtitle proclaims. Paperback and hardcover lithocase editions were commissioned.
Behind Blue Curtains by Lizzy Hershberger with Molly Maeve Eagan
Published in 2021 by Nauset Press. Cover Design by Karyn Kloumann.
The author provided a snapshot of herself from the 1980s. It was not the right proportion for a book cover, so a photomontage from multiple skies was incorporated into the image to fill out the proportions of the vertical book cover, and also to foreshadow the content of the book, which started out describing dark abuse towards the author, but lightened into a message of hope for survivors by the end of the book, including resources for victims of abuse.
The Armenians of
Musa Dagh by
Vahram L. Shemmassian
Published in 2020 by The Press, University of California, Fresno. Cover Design by Karyn Kloumann.
Musa Dagh is a mountain in the Hatay region of Turkey, and when the order came to deport Armenian people in July 1915, six villages successfully thwarted attacks for 53 days. French allies in the Mediterranean spotted 4,200 survivors and evacuated them to safety just as their food and supplies were running out.
The cover depicts a map of the region with an Armenian family, rising from the shadows of obscurity as the subtitle proclaims. Paperback and hardcover lithocase editions were commissioned.
Misak Medzarents: The Complete Lyric Poems by James R. Russell
Published in 2020 by The Press, University of California, Fresno. Public Domain Image by Maxfield Parrish. Cover Design by Karyn Kloumann.
The public domain art: "City of Brass" by Maxfield Parrish perfectly evokes the stunning lyrical poetry of Misak Medzarents.
