MEET THE COOKS
Ask any chef and they’ll tell you the most important ingredient for an efficient and successful kitchen is highly-skilled and hard-working staff. Of course, every successful kitchen also needs a good leader – someone who can take a step back, look at the bigger picture and guide their entire team towards success.
While our team of location independent cover cooks may be scattered around the globe, our head chef, Xavier, masterfully conducts them to continuously serve up book cover designs in the form of works of art.
With backgrounds in fine arts, graphic design, advertising, and even visual effects, each of our cover cooks’ stories are unique, but they remain united in the kitchen in the pursuit of book cover creation.
“It’s our shared love for books and artists’ obsession that keep us continually creating.”
― Coverkitchen Staff
Xavier, founder and director | Bangkok
“I was born and raised in Barcelona and completed my Bachelor's Degree in fine arts at the University of Barcelona. In 1990, during my second year of university, I got my first job as a junior book cover designer at a small studio where we literally cut and pasted everything using scissors and glue. The idea of using computers to create covers thrilled me, but my boss was skeptical and preferred to stick to the traditional ways. So I decided to set up my first design studio, Eidologic, while still at university.
“After a year-long journey to remote places in Micronesia and Southeast Asia, I decided to leave Barcelona for good and seek out more adventures and a career as an art photographer. Moving to Bangkok and traveling around the region made me realise that our book cover design company could expand to international authors and publishers, but my partners in Spain did not share this vision. In 2009, I decided to quit my own company and start again from scratch, founding Coverkitchen. Later, I also incorporated in Singapore to be more efficient as a cloud-based, location independent company.”
Rafael, designer and illustrator | Arizona
“Like Xavier, I was born and grew up in Barcelona. I began drawing as soon as I was able to hold a pencil, and as a kid I loved comics so I went to study fine arts in Barcelona University to be a comic book artist. That’s where I first met Xavier; we were also neighbors. In my third year of university, I had to quit studying and start working. Since then I have worked in nearly every field of graphic design.
“Xavier is my oldest friend and we’d worked together several times before. I began working with him full-time at his first design studio in Barcelona, Eidologic, in 1995, and again at Coverkitchen when I moved from Bali to Bangkok in 2006”
Aurora, designer | Barcelona
“I was born in Argentina, where my mother’s family is from. We later moved to Barcelona where I studied design at an art school called La Massana. At that time, I started working on some personal projects and that’s when I discovered editorial design.
“In 1998, when I was still studying, I had my first job with Xavier at his studio, Eidologic. Then after several years of working in large publishing houses I started working on my own. Just a couple of years ago, Xavier got in contact with me and I started working with him again. This, for me, is a new challenging stage in my career that has brought back my love for this beautiful job.”
Barış, designer and illustrator | Athens
“I was born in a small Aegean town of Turkey, where both of my parents were teaching at the time. My family’s background is, however, from the city so I grew up in Istanbul. My father is a well known author in Turkey and during my early childhood I was always next to him in his huge library. My youngest uncle is also a graphic designer; I believe that was a deadly combination for me to have them both in my life. Later, I went on to study Visual Communication Design at İstanbul Bilgi University, both a Bachelor’s and Masters of Fine Arts.
“Xavier reached out to me in 2020 to design the cover of Un Cuervo Viejo by Ezequiel Albizuri. We clicked right away, on both a creative and personal level, and that was the start of a beautiful working relationship.”
Rob, designer and photographer | Chiang Mai
“I was born in North Wales and always had an interest in art from a young age. I attended the North East Wales Institute, which is now known as Wrexham Glyndŵr University, where I studied art and design.
“I fell into designing book covers almost by accident. After leaving teaching, I decided to put the digital skills I’d learned to use as a freelance graphic designer. The very first job I got was designing a series of book covers and I very quickly realised that I loved doing it!
“I received an email from Xavier in 2020 saying that he had seen my portfolio online. After several discussions with Xavier, he hired me for a book cover project, which has since then led to many other projects together.”
David, designer, illustrator, and visual narrator | Barcelona
“I was born in a village near Barcelona and later attended the Barcelona University of Fine Arts, where I focused on design, illustration, sculpture, and 3D design for narrative visuals. For me, one of the most interesting areas was book cover design and illustration; the necessary narrative built in this kind of job made it one of the most appealing fields for me.
“Later on, working also in the cinema and early VFX industry, I started to apply all those narrative style skills and techniques to produce the first book trailers for the Spanish market. Besides book covers, nowadays I produce a wide range of video-based products, specifically for the publishing markets, from book trailers to book teasers.
“I worked for years with Xavier at his previous studio, so my relationship with the Coverkitchen ‘soul’ has been an enduring one. Besides this, and also being university buddies, we spent a great deal of time investigating graphics. In the early 90s, computer graphics were just starting to take off and things were really exciting! In fact, the first book cover produced by a Spanish publisher featuring a photoreal 3D model to replace a photograph was made by me and Xavier. So, our creative chemistry has been always there, and it's always a continuous stream of mutual inspiration.”
