Fairfield graphic designer George Foster has been quietly designing book covers since the 1980s. After more than 1200 books, many bestsellers, and nearly 300 awards, he figured he’d seen everything—until the email arrived from Crossroad Publishing last March. They had a manuscript by Pope Francis which they were planning to publish, and they asked George if he would design the jacket. George had designed dozens of covers for Crossroad, including megaseller The Naked Now by Richard Rohr, but this was unexpected. After thinking about it for a tenth of a second, George agreed.
The image on the cover was chosen because, Pope Francis once said that his favorite painting is The White Crucifixion by Marc Chagall. Permission was obtained from the Art Institute of Chicago, which required that the entire painting, not just a portion, be shown on the cover.
The book cover features a painting by Marc Chagall from the Art Institute of Chicago.
Weeks ahead of its November 18 release, the book is already a strong bestseller on amazon.com. By far, George’s most successful book cover has been Chicken Soup for the Woman’s Soul, but that could be changing now. To see George’s book covers, visit fostercovers.com.