--- title: "Behind the Cover: The Art and Serendipity of Comment’s Design Process" description: Designer Kathryn de Ruijter shares the process of selecting Comment magazine's cover images. Discover the journey behind our summer issue's perfect cover. image: https://blog.comment.org/hubfs/Comment/Blog/The%20Commons/summer-issue2.jpg --- Theme + Migration = $1489 (Pay for the Theme Only). [Learn More.](https://www.lpd-themes.com/migration) [![The Commons](https://blog.comment.org/hubfs/Comment/Blog/The%20Commons/The-Commons-blue-w-qualifier2.svg "The Commons")](https://blog.comment.org/thecommons) [ Comment website ](https://comment.org/) [![The Commons](https://blog.comment.org/hubfs/Comment/Blog/The%20Commons/The-Commons-blue-w-qualifier2.svg "The Commons")](https://blog.comment.org/thecommons) [ Comment website ](https://comment.org/) [![The Commons](https://blog.comment.org/hubfs/Comment/Blog/The%20Commons/The-Commons-blue-w-qualifier2.svg "The Commons")](https://blog.comment.org/thecommons) [ Comment website ](https://comment.org/) [![The Commons](https://blog.comment.org/hubfs/Comment/Blog/The%20Commons/The-Commons-blue-w-qualifier2.svg "The Commons")](https://blog.comment.org/thecommons) [ Comment website ](https://comment.org/) [Behind the scenes](https://blog.comment.org/thecommons/tag/behind-the-scenes) [Art](https://blog.comment.org/thecommons/tag/art) [Design](https://blog.comment.org/thecommons/tag/design) # Behind the Cover: The Art and Serendipity of Comment’s Design Process By [ Kathryn de Ruijter ](https://blog.comment.org/thecommons/author/kathryn-de-ruijter) May 29, 2024 3 Minute Read How do you capture the essence of an entire issue in one image, presented on the front cover? And how do you welcome in readers from all walks of life who do not necessarily share similar perspectives on the issue topic at hand? These are the kind of questions we think about during the design process of *Comment*. For some issues the cover image proves more elusive than for others. As the designer of the *Comment* quarterly print journals, I spend many hours each issue searching for that perfect image. It’s a bit of a treasure hunt, going down rabbit holes, peering into dark corners, and following clues from one place to the next. I start by going through a list of artists that we’ve been compiling for years and work my way out from there. (Visual artists, if you’d like your name on this list, please [send us an email](mailto:team@comment.org)! We’d love to hear from you.) I usually have a hazy sense of what I’m looking for—an image, an idea, a tone, or a feeling that the issue’s articles have evoked. It needs to be particular to the topic, but not so specific that it leaves out differing perspectives and understandings. The cover is meant to both intrigue and welcome the reader in. *Comment* hangs out in retail spaces now too ([find us in your local bookstore](https://comment.org/retail/) and buy copies for all your friends!), so we’re also looking for something that will capture attention amid the competing covers of the newsstand. There’s a lot riding on the cover image. I usually end up with twenty to forty cover options. I sit with them for days and often weeks, and then narrow it down to the ones that continue to hold steady in what they evoke. Then comes the fun part. The entire* Comment* team gathers for an online meeting and I have the privilege of sharing four to seven cover options with them. I introduce the artists and the history, context, or stories behind the particular pieces we are considering. After running through all the options, every member of our team takes a turn sharing their initial impressions. Rarely do we find consensus at this point. It always amazes me how images touch us on such personal levels. A cover that one person delights in, others shy away from or find outright repulsive. Through sharing perspectives and impressions, we all find ourselves seeing the images in fuller and more nuanced ways. Sometimes someone touches on something that immediately makes it clear that the option is no longer in the running. Other times, we’ll be split down the middle on our top choice between two very different images. We find our way to consensus sometimes through the discussion or, more often, over the following weeks in continued conversation. The cover of our summer issue, however, came to us in a very different way. We went through the usual process and having found an image that many of us thought perfect, we proceeded to reach out to the artist. She declined. This was unusual, but not unprecedented. We went through a scaled-back process and decided on a second option. We contacted this artist numerous times and across multiple platforms and never heard back. Also unusual. At this point, we were getting uncomfortably close to our print deadline, and we were still without a cover. Then we received an email from the Ohio-based artist [Cody F. Miller](https://www.codyfmiller.com/), who contacted us because he had recently come across “[The Grief Catcher](https://comment.org/podcasts/the-grief-catcher/)” episode of *Comment*’s *Whole Person Revolution* podcast with Anne Snyder. The conversation so moved him that he began digging into *Comment*’s archives and was excited to have discovered the journal. He felt like his work and ours shared something essential, and he wanted to connect. Earlier that same morning, I had been going back and forth with Anne about the image that she hoped her editorial would evoke: “something nautical/floating-yet-attached in metaphor. And even if not attached by rope, at least headed largely along similar currents, as a little band.” Cody’s email then reached my inbox, expressing heartfelt appreciation for *Comment* while sharing a bit about his own vocation as an artist. Then I blinked:* *he said his work is based on the concept of “longing for home.” We had not yet announced our next issue topic *Searching for Home*. I felt like the leaves were rustling as the Spirit was moving through. I began looking through Cody’s portfolio online. And there, at the bottom of the last page on Cody’s website, was our cover image. ![summer-2024-cover-2](https://blog.comment.org/hs-fs/hubfs/Comment/Email/Marketing/summer-2024-cover-2.png?width=2516&height=1634&name=summer-2024-cover-2.png) We may plan our ways, but the Lord establishes our steps, in his time. We are so pleased to share this cover with you as we feel it is the perfect welcome into a beautiful issue where, from across sectors, our authors explore the elusive, yet universal, longing to find our way home. For those of you who subscribe to the print journal, you can read more about Cody and his work on the interior back cover of the summer issue, which will be landing in your mailboxes in early June. [![Picture of Kathryn de Ruijter](https://blog.comment.org/hubfs/Comment/Blog/The%20Commons/Headshots/kathryn.jpg)](https://blog.comment.org/thecommons/author/kathryn-de-ruijter) #### Kathryn de Ruijter Kathryn de Ruijter designs the quarterly print issues of Comment. She’s a new(ish) resident of western Pennsylvania, originally from Hamilton, Ontario. She and her husband Willem are ambitiously changing their front yard into a garden and they have three kids who cheer for both the Blue Jays and the Pirates. 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