Up Front - NYTimes.com Since this week's issue assesses an array of feminist ideas and arguments, it made particular sense to commission illustrations from a woman, in this case Kelly Blair, who created the cover image and the three other illustrations that accompany our lead essays (by Toni Bentley and Jennifer Homans). Blair brings an array of qualifications to the task - not least her firsthand connection to the publishing world. Currently a senior designer at Alfred A. Knopf, Blair previously was an art director at Little, Brown & Company, and has also run her own studio. "I think, over all, men and women are represented fairly equally in the publishing world," Blair observed in an e-mail. I see a lot of very talented female designers and illustrators doing great work. Nonetheless, "sex and gender do still play a role," she added, and "there's room for improvement." Because Blair has held important positions at two publishing houses long identified with literary fiction, we asked her to comment on a question that has recently been heating up the blogosphere and Twitter (and been discussed as well in these pages) - the perception that novels by major women writers often come packaged in soft pictorial covers, in contrast with the boldly lettered "big book" approach works by men receive. "There is a certain language that says "women's fiction" right away," Blair acknowledged. I think most designers are always searching for unexpected solutions within those restrictions.