I bet you’re thinking these designers just replicate the covers of the Japanese edition, just with a different size and adding the company working on it. Well, they do do that! But as you read the advice from 4 current manga designers, you’ll learn they do more than update a cover — for starters, they may have to do a new one. Give a read to these 4 people and what they have to share about working in the manga industry as a manga designer:
Kirk Benshoff (Sword Art Online, Emma, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya)
Fawn Lau (Nisekoi, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Phantom Blood, Kingyo Used Books)
Izumi Evers (Food Wars!, So Cute It Hurts!!, Spell of Desire, Terra Formars)
Yukiko Whitley (Black Rose Alice, Master Keaton, Ranma 1/2. Rin-ne, The Legend of Zelda)
How did you get the opportunity to start working as a manga designer?
Kirk Benshoff: I‘ve had the luxury of working in a bunch of different areas of the design industry. I started out in magazine publishing, moved into advertising, then web design, marketing, then to book publishing. When I was working with Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, our company wanted to start up a graphic novel imprint and was lucky enough to get Yen Press. Since I was nested in children’s publishing I got to work on the Yen Press titles. Now I am the art director for Yen Press, Yen On, and Orbit Books and the rest is history.
Fawn Lau: In college I worked as a designer for the university newspaper for work study. I applied for a summer internship at Digital Manga/Akadot since it was local (a rep from Digital Manga at the time came to my university’s anime club to talk up the internship opportunities). During the internship, I befriended several coworkers and one ended up moving on to become an editor at TOKYOPOP. Remembering my print experience, they contacted me for freelance lettering, and long story short, a couple years later I became a full-time designer for TOKYOPOP. That’s how it started!
Izumi Evers: I used to work at a Japanese music magazine publisher, and the former VIZ Media executives liked my works, so I was hired.
Yukiko Whitley: When I was looking for a graphic design job, the VIZ Media office moved across the street from my apartment. And, I felt this was destiny.
What would you say is the role of a designer of manga?
Kirk: The designer has an interesting role when it comes to designing manga, manwha, or any other property from another country. Let’s take a manga property from Japan as an example. The designer’s primary role is to carefully preserve the original look/feel/experience of the original. Since Japanese text reads vertically and English reads horizontally, every project needs to be addressed case-by-case, making sure every typographic details that were in the original edition are being translated into ours. Sometimes we have clear-cut answers, other times we need to make executive decisions that deviate from the original design but still keep the integrity of the original intent. If there are printing effects from Japan, our job is to maintain that look using US printers. If the original has foldout posters, color inserts, etc., our job is to recreate those elements for the English edition.
When we are designing original graphic novels, we are helping to set the tone of the book. We are helping to create the brand and set the tone for the series/book. The designer works closely with the editors to put together a package that not only reinforces the story, but also invites a reader to pick it up.
In both cases, the designer needs to have a close relationship with the editors to create the coolest looking package for books.
Fawn: Understanding the content and trying to understand the best parts of the original manga design, then marrying that with improving elements to appeal to the Western audience. Sometimes the original needs no improvement, other times it needs a strong rework.
Izumi: To successfully convert the look and feel of the original Japanese manga, and assist the localization of it to the US readers.
Yukiko: It’s like hair and make-up artists behind the Broadway shows. You need to get the manga ready for it’s big debut in the U.S.
What was the biggest misconception you had about the manga industry before you started working in it?
Kirk: For me, I didn’t realize how large the industry is in Japan. Going to Forbidden Planet or Borders (back in the day) I saw this intense collection of books in the manga section. But it wasn’t until I was working in the industry for a while that I realized that even what’s state side is dwarfed by an even larger number of titles overseas.
Fawn: Manga in America is small beans compared to the hundreds of thousands of sales in Japan, so something popular in Japan does not equate to popularity in America.
Izumi: As a person of Japanese descent, I didn’t think there would be so many manga readers in the USA.
Yukiko: I thought it would be crazy busy, but it was not like working in Japan.
What’s generally the biggest challenge you face when designing a manga series?
Kirk: The biggest challenge and the part I enjoy the most is doing the English translation of the logo. This is the part where you really get to the dive into what the property is all about. Is it light hearted? Or is it darker in tone? Is the series fantasy, sci fi, or slice of life? It’s fun delving into the typography that’s ultimately going to be used over the course of an entire series and potentially spin off series too.
Fawn: Creating a new English logo when there’s no real logo that exists for inspiration. For me it’s the longest part of the process but also the most creative part of it.
Izumi: How to present the look and feel of the original Japanese design to the U.S. market.
Yukiko: Trying to make the creators and Japanese publishers happy with the U.S. adaptation.
Kirk: Working on so many titles and not having enough time to read everything I want to!
Fawn: There’s no one moment but a typical tough situation is getting feedback from a licensor that they want something changed back. You and the editor may completely disagree, but since the licensor is the owner we have to follow their instructions.
Izumi: I’m sad manga is still a niche market.
Yukiko: When Japanese publishers and authors didn’t like our designs.
What type of advice would you give to someone who might be interested in doing work as a manga designer?
Kirk: First, do what you love. If you want to illustrate, pick up the pen and start drawing. If you want to design, open InDesign and redesign something. If you want to start up your own series, start outlining a story. No matter how far you get, at least you’re doing what you love.
Second, don’t be afraid to share your work with others. Go on /r/manga or some other community and get feedback on your work. Email your stuff to friends and family. Remember that you’re not always going to get positive feedback on your work, and that’s okay. Hell, I got panned for using a lens flare on the book cover once. Haters are gonna hate and brats are going to be bratty. But take everything with a grain of salt. After a while, you’ll start to see the people who are being jerks just be jerks and recognize the solid feedback from people who clearly took a moment to understand your perspective.
Third, collaborate when you can. There’s a reason why teachers inevitably pair students together to work on projects. It helps you break out of your comfort zone and approach things differently. But there are other upsides to it as well. It expands your reach and you’ll be able to share your work with a broader audience: more exposure, more feedback, and ultimately more development.
Lastly, don’t put pressure on yourself to accomplish only one goal/path. In this day in age, if you work on something you love and find an audience to follow it, your doing more than most people could dream of doing 20 years ago. Opportunities open up from just truly enjoying the process and having fun doing it. Maybe it’s an illustration job for a magazine or a freelance design job doing promotional pieces. Those opportunities can lead to new ones and all the while you’re staying true to your interests.
Fawn: 100% study print and packaging design first. Love design enough that you can design for any company and when a position opens, your portfolio should be strong enough to get you in. Also understand that working with licensed properties means that you may have a lot of creative restrictions, but don’t be discouraged and try to be extra creative when figuring out solutions.
Izumi: Please expand your interests to wider genres besides manga.
Yukiko: If you only love manga, you can’t be a manga designer. You have to check out other cool stuff too.
What manga have you most enjoyed working on and why?
Kirk: There’s a couple projects that stick out. I worked on The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya crossover prose series. It was a series that was designed to appeal to readers that don’t normally read manga or light novels. So we got to redesign it from the ground up. This was something very unique in that we got to really do something different from what was done in Japan or anywhere else. I love those covers. Then there’s Bunny Drop, this series was so cute and super fun and the series logo and design style was something that I particularly fell in love with.
Fawn: I actually like working on manga for an older audience or vintage manga that you can explore a new format and not go strictly to a paperback 5” x 7.5”, $9.99 book. Things like Sunny or the hardbound editions of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure are my general interest so it makes it fun to work on as well.
Izumi: Too many… manga by Junko Mizuno, since she is a super talented creator. Also Gyo by Junji Ito, because it is very crazy and funny.
Yukiko: The VIZ Big edition of Vagabond. Lots of freedom to design the book and the author (Takehiko Inoue) was cool with it.
Finally, how has working on manga changed how you view manga in general?
Kirk: I’ve always considered manga to be high art. The attention to detail and breadth of subject matter really makes it not just some nerdy pastime… but an expansive visual style that really covers topics in an in depth and unique way. I grew up with Starblazers and Gundam, and to me it was synonymous with Saturday morning cartoons. But being nested in this industry for so long, you see how expansive the topics are and how anyone can find their niche. Whether you’re a toddler, teenager, adult, boy, girl, hopeless romantic, foody, musician, or even frustrated parent. There’s a manga out there waiting for you.
Fawn: I’ve read manga at a young age and comics in general all my life, so I guess it only confirmed my view that it’s fun, extremely diverse and for all ages!
Izumi: It really didn’t change me so much since I grew up reading manga from Japan!
Yukiko: I used to think manga was just entertainment, but now I feel there are so many things I can learn from manga.
Manga Advice Series Schedule:
May 5: Advice From Manga Translators
June 10: Advice From Manga Designers
July 8: Advice From Manga ???August 12: Advice From Manga ???