“Eyes Open” Digital Cover
Illustration | Color Theory | Typography | KDP Cover Design
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Here is an example of the first, very rough ideas I drafted right after getting all the desired elements from the client. Following this, I asked them to narrow down these six ideas down to three for me to refine.
One of my first freelance contracts out of school was for the author Benjamin Matthew Thiesen, for one of his newest novels “Eyes Open”, available to read on Amazon. I was able and succeeded in closely working with his manager on what exactly the author was envisioning, and was able to make iterative progress until we created exactly what Thiesen wanted.
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After the client chose three images from the first round of images, I refined each idea to show more accurately what the final cover would look like for each. After this, I asked them to pick a final image for me to finalize.
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This is how the final cover turned out, formatted perfectly for both physical and KDP usage. The client was exceptionally happy with the finalized cover and has assured me he’ll be returning to me as he writes his next covers.
Book Cover Redesigns
Typography | Color Theory | Illustration | Experimental
Redesigning classic novels to fit a new age of readers can be challenging, but that’s not to say designing contemporary novels is easy. For my book design class I was tasked with redesigning one contemporary and one classic novel cover. For my contemporary novel I received “The Hummingbird’s Daughter” by Luis Alberto Urrea and “The Old Man and the Sea” by Ernest Hemmingway for my classic novel. I wanted to capture the main ideas of Urrea’s novel; themes of Christianity, war and captivity, hence the heavier and messy feeling of the lines and illustrations. For Hemmingway, I wanted to catch the younger viewers eye with the bright pink, while illustrating the cause and effect for the happenings of the whole novel, the fabled swordfish.
“Old Man and the Sea” by Ernest Hemmingway
“The Hummingbird’s Daughter” by Luis Alberto Urrea