Leading the Unleadable — A book jacket about managing strong personalities

Amacom Books

We publish books to help people at work and in their lives.

Hello designers. We’d like for you to design a 6” x 9” paperback book cover for us. Here’s the information on the book:

Title: Leading the Unleadable
Subtitle: How to Manage Mavericks, Cynics, Divas, and Other Difficult People
Author: Alan Willett

----Design Information----

Audience: Managers, supervisors, execs, team leaders

Over all “look and feel": very contemporary, hip, simple layout, but still a business book. A LITTLE bit funny. Maybe an all-lower case title. Would like it to feel like a truly useful book on managing “difficult” people, and hint at the difficult people without being silly, childish, or cartoonish. Should not look like a humor book, but have a touch of humor to it. Possibly “Leading the” could be serious and “Unleadable” could feel a bit crazy.

Possible imagery: We’d like to IMPLY the difficult people rather than show them directly. Maybe with objects as symbols that show strong personalities, like different jackets on the backs of office chairs or different coffee mugs, or cubicle decorations. You could show actual people, but it needs to be done in a really understated way. No conventional stock photos of businesspeople in suits, no stock art illustrations.

Published books with similar feel: I have attached a compilation called Management Level, with a Bit of Humor. None of them are on the subject of the book, but they all look both serious and have a fun quality

Some information about the book is attached.

NOTE: Please show me your designs as a face-front, flat image. You’re welcome to also include an angled “3D” version if you want, but we want to be able to compare all the designs in a FLAT format. We prefer jpgs that are about 1200 pixels tall. We do not want to see a spine or a back cover.

Thanks, Cathleen Ouderkirk