30 Covers, 30 Days 2011: Day 30

Man alive! It is the very last day of 30 Covers, 30 Days, if you can believe it. It's been an incredible month, full of gripping synopses, evocative covers, and some spirited discussion, both here and in our forums. Thank you so much to all of our Wrimos, our designers, and, of course, the magnanimous, magnificent John Gall. Today's final cover was created in 24 hours by the impressive Laurie Rosenwald:



The Sandwich Technique by knittingkneedle

Above a Burger King in South London, The Lewisham School of Language welcomes a new class of students wishing to learn English as a second language.

Meet Raj Puri, a twenty nine year old Pakistani-born, and proud first generation British citizen. He loves fish and chips, football, and Princess Diana; his dream is to meet Ian Beale from EastEnders. On the plus side, the class he teaches is dirt-cheap but apparently, when it comes to basic conversational English, you really do get what you pay for.

The students, including a Korean divorcee, a cantankerous seventy-five-year-old Polish builder, an African refugee and a glamorous mail order bride, all have their different reasons for studying English, and indeed, vastly different reasons for leaving their homeland but they are all the same in their isolation from the country they inhabit -- hindered and hidden behind that very large barrier of language. 

Raj's methods are unorthodox, his pronunciation and grasp of basic grammar is poor, but over ten weeks, through terribly written essays and an overdose of British soap operas, both the students and Raj learn something -- if not how to pass their end of year exams -- about struggles that transcend language, about prejudice, friendship and what it means to be a citizen of the world.




A designer, animator and illustrator, Laurie Rosenwald also does humor writing, as well as writing which is only marginally funny.

Her design studio, rosenworld, doesn't exist. In spite of this, rosenworld.com was launched in 1995.

She's done many drawings for the New Yorker, the New York Times and other fine publications, taught graphic design at the School of Visual Arts, Parsons School of Design, and NYU, and has held her iconoclastic creativity workshop, 'How to Make Mistakes on Purpose' (or 'What to Do when it's too Late to get Burrs on your Pants and Invent Velcro All Over Again') for corporations, conferences and schools all over the world, from Stockholm to Starbucks Creative Camp.

She's very proud of 'David's Diary,' an animated application created for the iPhone, iPad and Android, made in collaboration with the brilliant writer David Sedaris, who had this to say about her work: "I have to say I was completely blown away. Let me add that I NEVER use that phrase." Laurie appeared in the pivotal role of 'Woman' on The Sopranos. Really. Season Five, Episode One. She claims to have won all the usual awards.

I don't particularly love the cover, but that synopsis is amazing.

I don't like the cover either... what exactly is that blue stuff??? It's very distracting and seems to have nothing to do with the story. Something that spoke of the different cultures would have worked better, or teaching supplies such as books, papers, pencils.

I love the synopsis; I'd definitely like to read this book!

I'm okay with the blue paint part of the cover, but the text... ow. The only thing worse than yellow text is BLURRY yellow text. If the designer was going for a misaligned printed feel, I think one layer of red and one layer of yellow would have worked much better, not to mention it would be much more readable.

Mostly I just find this cover kind of confusing. :/

I'm familiar with the phrase "Sandwich technique" (Google helps) and it makes the cover and story make a little more sense to me.
Super, inspirational work overall. Enjoyed the covers and synopses, we have some very creative people.
It's been a huge encouragement just to be considered. Looking forward to next year. :)

I agree with all of you guys. What is that bllue gunk on the cover? The synopsis is great, and I immediately wanted to know more about the glamorous mail order bride

The cover makes me think "horror novel about fast food". But I love the synopsis, especially since I've had a brief stint of teaching ESL. Sounds like a delightful read.

The synopsis is interesting, but I am really not a fan of the cover. It feels very thrown together and unprofessional to me, because the illustration/typography do not make the other image, the blue gunk. There's also a little overlap of the top of the orange bun with the top section of the blue paint photograph. It feels incongruous with the designer's alleged illustrious background.

I like the blue and I get the sandwich part, but overall I don't think this cover is a good fit with the synopsis.

Oh dear...the colors clash way too much in this cover and not in a good way. I'm with everyone on the blue paint thing... what's the point of it?

This seem like the designer cut and pasted some images and then slammed them on a canvas. It would look better if the blue gunk was made to run over the bun, instead of some strange copy/paste thing.

This may sound harsh, but I feel as if this yeat the designers for 30 Cover, 30 Days didn't take this seriously.

Actually, I like the blue paint, but I don't like the sandwich very much. I do agree that the colors clash. But, I take my hat off to the author. I absolutely LOVE the synopsis- there is no doubt that I would read this book. Best of luck!

looks like blue frosting to me :)

I love the blue, looks like frosting to me. Interesting contrast to the stylized burger. Don't know it it was done purposely but it does go with the mismatched unusual characters. I might have done the title in red myself. But that's just my eyes, at my age I am starting to have a hard time seeing yellow.

Agree with everyone else. The synopsis is really great, but the cover is just confusing. It kinda gives me a headache trying to concentrate on it.

LOVE the synopsis, but I too don't understand the cover. At all. I initially thought the blue stuff was play-doh. Fuzzy graphics are also a no-no.

I found the cover confusing, but the synopsis sounds fantastic!

In all honesty, this cover looks like a collection of images copied and pasted from the internet, straight into Microsoft Paint.

Sorry, artist, but this synopsis (which sounds great) had so much potential for an amazing cover.