thesis book cover design

How to design a great thesis cover (Ultimate guide)

• July 19, 2023

I could write an entire book just on book covers. It’s a deeply interesting subject with a wealth of both art and data behind it…but I won’t do that to you, because you probably don’t care.

Instead, I’m going to make this as simple as possible for you to get your dissertation cover design right.

This chapter will walk you through what you need to know about book covers, why you need a book cover designer, how to find a good one, how to work with them to ensure they create the cover you want, and how to make sure you have the right cover when the process is done.

• What You Need to Know About Thesis Covers

What to Do Before You Hire a Dissertation Cover Designer

How do you find a thesis cover designer.

• How Do You Work With Your Dissertation Cover Designer?
• How Can You Check If You Have a Good Thesis Cover Design?

There are three big principles you need to know:

1. Your book will be judged by its cover (and that’s good)

We all know the saying, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” But that’s not the reality of life, is it?

Everyone judges books by their covers. Especially your dissertation.

In fact, we almost cannot biologically stop ourselves. Humans are visual creatures. We see our way through the world, and vision is our defining sense. Humans can be immediately reached, engaged, and moved by color and shape because these images enter the brain literally at light speed. This is the power of design.

Here’s the thing:  it’s good news that people judge your book by the cover . Otherwise, they might not make any judgment at all, and no judgment means they aren’t buying or reading it.

Can you imagine walking through a bookstore that had covers with no information on it other than the title? Or browsing Amazon and looking only at book titles? That would make book-buying decisions much more difficult.

People will judge your book cover and use that judgment to evaluate whether they want to buy it. This is a chance to win a reader, and reach the exact who needs to read your book .

2. You should not design your own dissertation book cover

When you want a bottle of beer, do you brew it yourself?

When you want a new coat, do you sew it yourself?

When you need a new bar of soap, do you make it yourself?

No. You buy those things from people who are experts at making them.

Thesis covers are no different. You should not design your thesis cover yourself. You should have your book cover designed by a professional to get a professional cover.

This is for the same reason that most people don’t make homebrewed beer even though it’s not terribly complicated, and why no one wears homemade clothes, even though they’re easy to make—they’re awful when compared to the professional alternatives.

The only real difference between beer and coats, and book covers is that some people think they can design their own book covers, even if they really can’t.

For some reason I can’t understand, many authors think they are also designers. I don’t know if it’s that design software is fun to use, or that great design has a simplicity to it that belies its difficulty, but let me be very clear about something:

Unless you are a multi-year dissertation designer with 400+ titles in your portfolio, you should not be designing your own cover.

3. There are objectively good and bad book covers

Book cover design is not completely subjective. There are good and bad book covers, and a good designer can clearly tell you the difference between them.

This is because a book cover is a piece of art with a specific purpose:

Book covers exist to give visual form to written content.

A great cover makes someone in your intended audience say “I need to read that,” by  showing  them why the book matters to them in a way they can immediately grasp (or at least raising their interest enough to want to learn more). It should help your audience realize that they should be reading your book.

Another way to think about it is framed by Chip Kidd, a famous book cover designer, who said that “ a book cover is a distillation of the content, almost like what your book would look like as a haiku. ”

That being said, a good book cover is not just an expression of the idea behind a book, it’s the way the audience first engages that idea.

It’s marketing. And that is how you measure an objectively good book cover:

A good book shows what’s in the book, and makes the audience interested in reading it.

Now you understand what purpose a cover serves and why a professional book cover is important, you’re ready to find a good book cover designer and hire them, right?

Not so fast.

The main problem book designers have with authors is poor communication. The author has no idea what they want or has vague, ambiguous cover ideas, and the two never get on the same page.

You can avoid this problem by doing some work prior to finding a book cover designer. Not only will this result in a better cover, but it can also save you a lot of money.

1. Look at lots of thesis covers, both in your field and out

The first thing to do is get an idea of what other books in your field are like, and maybe get some ideas from them.

Go to your universities online library and search in the category your book falls into. Search Pinterest for artsier titles if you’d like. If you want a classic, look to Bookcoverarchive.com for the best, most avant-garde titles.

Once you spend some time looking at a lot of dissertation covers in your genre, you’ll be shocked at how repetitive they are. That’s common.

Don’t feel bad about using some of these tropes—they exist for a reason, and they will help you, actually. It is a good thing for people to be able to identify your thesis as being in the genre you want to be in.

It’s also important to look at books in lots of other fields to get ideas as well. Just because your book is about psychology doesn’t mean you have to use the same tropes as all psychology books; you can use some ideas from business or self-help books, or even novels.

Also, don’t feel bad about taking inspiration from your favorite books. Great art and design don’t magically appear in a vacuum. They have to be born of some inspiration point.

2. Narrow down to a few covers that have elements of what you want

As you look through the hundreds of covers, save a few examples of the ones you really like, or ones that have elements that you really like. The reason you’re doing this should be obvious: you need to  show  your designer what you like (not just try to describe it).

Save the links or images and send them to your designer. A picture is worth a thousand words, which is worth massive savings in your time and money. Designers see the world visually, and the best way to get a point across to them is to show them.

At Typesettr, we have an onboarding process designed to help you get the right information prepared in your cover briefing which can be discussed with your designer.

3. Pick brands or other pieces of art that capture your aesthetic

Don’t just look at covers. Pull in logos, websites, art, photos, or pretty much any image you can find that’s in some way similar to what you want on your thesis cover.

Remember that design is everywhere. Do you love the clean, light simplicity of the Apple logo? Or are your more into the zany black and green playfulness of Android?

You are essentially creating a collage (some people call this a mood board) of visual inspiration and ideas that can help your designer understand how to best get your researches’s message across to your audience.

There are many places to hire book cover designers. We’re going to break them down by price point, and as always, priciest is best. You get what you pay for. Designers who are able to charge 2k and up for the services, do so because their designs SELL.

1. Independent Designer (€150-2000+):

The highest quality option is always to hire an independent thesis cover designer. Many of the best book cover designers in the world, who work regularly with major publishing houses, are available to hire on a freelance basis.

There are a few ways to find these people. One of the best options is Reedsy, a freelance marketplace designed specifically for authors. The other option is to go to more general design sites, like Behance or Dribbble, and search for book designers there. They can be a bit slow to respond and difficult to get in touch with, but the quality there is outstanding as well.

But the best method is to look inside your favorite books, and see who designed the cover. Then google their name–more than half the time, you’ll find their design site and can contact them directly.

2. 99Designs (€300-600+):

99Designs (and similar sites like Crowdspring) can work sometimes, at least to get decent designs.

On 99Designs, you post a detailed brief with all the technical parameters and visual examples you pulled, and then their designers read this information and post their work. Dozens of designers take your brief, design a cover, and post it for your approval. You then have the option to choose the winning designer to take the cover from, or, if you don’t like any of the designs, get a full refund with no hassle.

99Designs is great as a first option to test if a great cover would be worth the money to you. That way you can see the designs, get some ideas, and hopefully find a great cover. But, if not, no harm, and you can go back to the drawing board with the other options.

We’d recommend doing the Silver contest (which costs $499). The lower end contests really repel the better designers on the site, and the higher-end ones don’t seem to garner much higher quality (and actually tend to get fewer submissions).

3. Upwork (€50-500+):

The next step up the quality ladder would be a freelance network like Upwork. The overall quality of Upwork is not high, but there are some quality designers hidden on there. Expect to take your time to find the right person on one of these sites, but you will be able to find them. Job ads typically get dozens if not hundreds of responses, and designers typically link a portfolio of past work.

Screen out anyone with more than a few negative reviews, and then focus 100% of your screening time on judging their portfolios. Do a side by side comparison of the covers you liked when you did your research on Amazon. Do they appear to be of similar quality? If you can’t tell, ask a friend who understands the basics of design.

Portfolios are the only thing that gives you a real picture of the quality of their work. If you like their past work, you’ll probably like their future work. Everything else is just marketing.

4. Fiverr ($5-50):

Fiverr is a marketplace of services available for $5 or so. There are a ton of book cover designers on Fiverr, but almost all of them are absolute garbage.

I’ve never used Fiverr for cover design, but friends have been able to find a couple of designers who are good.

What happens is that a new designer will do a great job, get a ton of 5-star reviews, and then disappear to another site where they can charge more than $5 for their work. Think of it this way. If someone has any design talent, why would they work for $5 a cover?

5. DIY ($0):

If you do this, do so at your own risk, and you will get precisely what you pay for. How Do You Work With Your Thesis Cover Designer?

Once you’ve picked a designer and negotiated price, then comes a discussion of your cover idea. Here is where all that work you did before comes into play.

1. Schedule the first call for phone or video

Schedule your first call to be phone or video. Email is very hard to effectively communicate with strangers, especially about abstract concepts like design.

2. Send them the covers and logos you liked before the call

Prior to the call, send them a cover design brief. This should include all the book covers you like, all the logos and other pictures you like, and everything else you assembled. Do this at least a day ahead of time, designers like to have time to digest images and ideas.

3. Explain your thinking

Once on the call, walk them through your thinking:

• Start with explaining who is your target reader.
• Then, explain what you like and dislike about each cover.
• Talk about what you want your cover to feel like.
• Discuss the signals you are trying to send to your audience.
• If you can, discuss the emotions you want your reader to feel when they see the cover.

The more you explain all of your thinking to the cover designer, the better they will do.

4. Ask for at least 3 mock-ups

This should be standard for good book cover designers. They will come up with an array of ideas and show you at least 3 different ones.

5. Give constructive notes on the mock-ups

Once you get the mock-ups back, if one jumps out at you, great. Give specific notes and feedback to get it where you want, and then you’re done.

If you aren’t happy with any of the covers, that’s OK too. Get back on the phone with the designer, and–while being polite–be as specific as possible about what you would like different.

This is not about getting angry or frustrated with the cover designer. They aren’t in your head, and if their mock-ups did not fit your vision, that’s OK. Just be clearer and more methodical in your description, and you’ll get there.

Remember this: your cover designer is a human who has feelings, but also a professional that wants to do a great job. You are both on the same team. You can be firm, but also polite and understanding.

How Can You Check If You Have a Good Dissertation Cover?

Once you have a cover, or you think you have one, here are the questions to ask to check if it’s working for you:

1. Does it stand out?

This is crucial. Look at it from all angles; print it out and put it across the room. Think of every possible way someone will look at it–on a screen, in a university library, etc–and make sure it stands out that way. Can you read the title? Is the image clear?

Check it as a thumbnail too. Does your cover look good when you shrink it down to a tiny thumbnail? That’s how most of your readers will see it, as a small image on Amazon.

2. Does it have a clear focus?

Establish a principal focus for the cover—nothing is more important than this one thing. Your book is about something, and the cover ought to reflect that one idea clearly. You must have one element that takes control, that commands the overwhelming majority of attention, of space, of emphasis on the cover.

Don’t fall into the trap of loading up your cover with too many elements, 3 or 4 photos, illustrations, maps, “floating” ticket stubs. This just confuses people, and confused people become repelled.

And don’t fall into the trap of believing your cover is a billboard, and every inch of space on it is real estate that needs to be filled up with the biggest possible words. The type needs to sit within the appropriate amount of emptiness in order to be readable. What is NOT on your cover is just as important as what IS on it. A quality designer will intimately know the appropriate font size for subtitles, blurbs, and author titles. Asking for them to be bigger, is merely going to drain the impact from your design.

3. Does it indicate what the thesis is and who the book is for?

Not only does your book stand out, but at a glance, your audience ought to know:

• The general genre of your book
• The general subject matter or focus, and
• Some idea of the tone or position of the book

A truly great book is one that captures the book inside in some fundamental and perhaps unforeseen way.

At the same time, don’t fall into the trap of feeling it has to show the content of the book or show an element or scene from the book (no one will know that is correct until after reading the book anyway).

4. Did you explore too many options?

Some authors spend far too much time trying to find the perfect cover. Usually, this is because it’s a way to work their anxieties about publishing out during the thesis cover design process.

It’s the major creative part of the publishing journey, and many people are nervous about what will happen when it ends. They force the hand of their designer through round after round of revisions, thinking they are bettering their cover.

In actuality, they are both running from their fears and ruining their cover design. Ask your cover designer when they believe your cover is done because they are the only impartial source for this knowledge.

5. Did you make the brave choice?

We see this happen all the time: we’ll give an author three mock-ups, and there will almost always be a non-optimal choice, a solid choice, and a great choice.

The great choice will almost always require the author to be brave in selecting it. It will have some angle or position that is novel in your field, or make a statement that is controversial, or just be different in a way that will make you just a little uncomfortable.

I’d say that only about 25% of authors pick the brave choice.

You don’t have to make the brave choice, but it’s almost always the best one (if there is a brave choice available). Be aware if this happens to you.

The solid choice is not bad, but it means your book won’t stand out or get the attention it deserves. The brave choice means it will.

If you are unsure how to define brave, here is a way to think about it:

The brave choice says what everyone is thinking, but not saying out loud. The brave cover is the one that people will remember. You’ve worked too hard on writing your book to cover it in mediocrity because some stranger on Facebook doesn’t like blue.

Be proud of your achievement. Be bold. Make your mark.

6. DO NOT POST on social media to get feedback

The best way to ensure you choose the mediocre (or even bad) cover is to poll people on social media.

Your average potential reader–when asked which cover they like–is going to channel their inner mob mentality and respond to the title that is most like what already saturates your market. They pick the most common design, because to them, common means fitting in. True, fitting in is better than looking a mess, but the cover game, first and foremost, is about BEING MEMORABLE.

Beyond that, a good book cover is not designed to appeal to everyone. It’s designed to appeal to the target audience of the book. Your 2500 Facebook friends include people you knew in high school and in-laws and that guy you met at a conference three years ago. They are not the target audience for your book.

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Ready for your thesis cover design?

After years of hard work it’s time for your thesis cover design. I’d love to help you with it! Together we’ll make a personal and beautiful design. Are you interested? Please contact me!

Your thesis design, your story

your PhD is a scientific achievement as well as a personal journey. It contains not only science, but also a big part of your spare time and life. If someone takes up your thesis, we want to make that person curious with the thesis design. Curious to open up your book and read more. But also, what I really like, is that your thesis design reflects you as a person. That can be very subtle in color choice and style or only visible to those who really know you. In this way we’ll get something unique. Every person is different, every taste is different and every subject is different. Combining these gives a new thesis design every time again.

What can I do for you?

Almost everything, except the text itself :-). Think about:

Invitations

Backgrounds of your powerpoint slides

The layout of the inside

On the basis of your thesis cover I always come up with extra ideas that add something to your design. For inspiration have a look at my lay-out page!

Unfortunately I don’t do designs for bachelor or master theses as well as designs for those who do their PhD at a university outside the Netherlands. I want to be fully updated about all the regulations regarding your cover and I want to know the printer we are cooperating with well. So I’m sure we will deliver a beautiful book. If you are working/living abroad, but your defense is still in the Netherlands of course that’s not a problem at all.

What does a thesis cover design cost?

The total cost depends on your wishes and things as the number of pages if you want us to do the layout. I’ll be happy to talk to you on the phone and hear what you wish for your thesis design. Of course, that’s for free.

No inspiration? I’ll help you!

Don’t worry if you don’t have any idea for your thesis design. You borrow my brain, which is always full of ideas. I ask you the right questions, so I know who you are and what your thesis is about. Based on that my brain starts to work and an idea will pop up that suits you and your subject. No preparation needed 🙂

Positive energy!

The design of your thesis cover is a great proces. You’ll see it will give you new energy. We’ll talk about who you are, what you want to radiate and we explore your taste. You’ll get a new, creative view on your thesis and you can picture the end result: a real book. You’ll have written a real book! There are only a few people who can say that.

Is there still space?

I want to maintain my personal way of working and high quality designs. Therefore I only have a few spaces each month. Please contact me at least four months before your defense. 

Would you like to see more of my designs?

Then as a final note: you can see I posted several designs on my website to give you an idea of what I have done before. However, this is just a small selection. If you’d like to see more please visit my Pinterest page . I try to keep the Pinterest page updated as well as possible so you can see all my designs.

How does it work?

Intake conversation for your thesis design.

During our first conversation (on the phone) I’ll ask you about the subject of your PhD and I try to get to know you a little bit. I’d like to know who you are so I can make a design that suits your subject as well as you as a person. The first conversation takes about an hour. Then I’ll ask you to send me some pictures of things that appeal to you. We’ll talk about them during our second conversation (also on the phone). The second talk is to give me an idea of your taste and will take about half an hour.

Concept phase

After our two conversations I design a concept thesis cover. The concept is just about the idea for the cover. It consists of a sketch and a color palette. As soon as you agree to the idea I will execute the design.

Design phase

I make the whole design for your thesis cover and I send it to you as a PDF file.

Correction round

We can adapt the thesis one more time. This round is meant for small changes. We can finetune the last things.

Print ready file of your thesis design

You’ll get your files as a pdf with the right print marks for the printer. This you can forward to the printer of your thesis. From the printer you will get a print proof of your thesis. It’s usually the best to ask for a paper print proof. On paper you always see different things then on a screen. At most printers, the paper print proof is included in the price.

A memory to hang on your wall

All my designs start with a handmade sketch. What happens next is usually partly or complete handwork depending on what I think will suit you best. I love handwork, since I feel it still has the most authentic feel to it. Very often my designs are therefore completely handmade. The only thing I do on the computer is to add the title. This means that there is an original painting. The painting stays with me to start with, but if you are interested it’s possible to buy it from me . In that way you have a nice memory to put on your wall. If I executed your design partly or completely on the computer, we can have it printed in a bigger size via a specialized printer .

I see you have a medical background. My thesis is about a completely different subject. Can you still help me?

Sure, I can. I’m very interested in a broad range of sciences. I really enjoy learning from all the different PhD students and subjects I work with. I’d love to help you!

I do see designs on your website that I like, but ‘my’ design is not there, is that a problem?

Because my way of working is very personal, every design is made for a specific person with their specific subject. You are unique and even more unique combined with your subject. Therefore you won’t find an already existing thesis that completely satisfies your needs. It’s simply not there yet.  In case you’d like to have a style that you don’t see on my website you can always talk to me about that. I’m open for every new idea. If I think I won’t be able to do what you want, I’ll honestly tell you. 

I love my thesis design so much, I would like to use it for my business card. Is that allowed?

The design is made only for the thesis cover. If you want to use it for something else we’ll have to make a new price deal. 

Can you also print my thesis?

I’m a designer and not a printer. You need to print your thesis at a professional printer. I’ll make sure the design is completely ready for print. I know all the big thesis printers in the Netherlands and they know me, so I can cooperate with any of them. A printer that I can very much recommend is Ridderprint . I think they deliver very good quality for a good price. They are also very communicative. A good quality print is very important for you and for me too, since your design is your and also my business card.

Thesis gallery

Please take your time to have a look at my thesis gallery. Because it’s impossible to show everything on the website, every now and then I move some designs to my Pinterest page . I try to keep that up to date as well as I can, so you can see everything.

Thesis cover

Thesis cover illustration

Thesis cover design

Did I make you curious? Let me help you!

• Skip to main content

Designing a cover for your thesis

10 February 2021 by ellen

The cover of your thesis is the first thing the reader sees. It gives a positive first impression. Or not… It is important to think carefully about the look and feel of your cover. Choose an image or text that provides a good first impression. Make the cover count! But how do you make a great cover for your thesis?

If you have no experience or knowledge of designing a cover, it can be very difficult to design one. In this blog you will find tips for the layout of the cover of your thesis. Among other information, we provide tips on the following subjects:

• Cover of the thesis;
• Fonts and sizes;
• Software to use.

Planning to print your PhD thesis and would you like to receive more information about it? Download our information booklet for free. Request the information book

On the cover of a thesis you usually will find the title, the subtitle and the name of the author. The title and name of the author usually also appear on the spine of a thesis. You can also choose to place a small introduction of the subject on the back of the cover. On the back you can add a logo and/or an image as well. The possibilities for your cover are endless. You can combine all sorts of elements. Just make it into something that fits you and your subject.

Thesis cover

As said before: the cover of the thesis provides an important first impression. You can decide to keep it modest but you can also stand out and make it something special. It depends on the impression you want to create. The cover always contains the title of your thesis. In addition, you can add image(s) to attract attention. Can’t find a suitable image? Then use an image that’s made by a designer according to your wishes or use your own photos. Another option is to download a stockphoto from the internet. A royalty-free photo that you download for free or one you have to pay for.

Some websites that offer royalty-free (stockphotos) are: – Unsplash – Pexels – Pixabay

Fonts and sizes

When choosing a font, it is important that is legible. Nowadays the use of fonts without serifs is popular. These fonts are easier to read for the brain. This also applies to the size of tehe font.

It is possible to choose a large font when you write a thesis for visually impaired people. But otherwise the most common font size is 10pt for the base text in a book or for the text on the back of the book.

There are no usual rules for the size of the title. Feel free to rely on your gut ?! Make sure that you take into account the image on the cover when you consider the title. As it must still be clearly visible.

Software to work with

One of the most used programs to process text is Word. You probably use this program a lot yourself. The disadvantage of this program is that the text sometimes shifts by itself. To prevent this, you can use the layout program InDesign.

InDesign is a professional layout program that is often used by graphic designers or professionals in the graphic industry. This program is very visual due to the extensive functionalities. But in the beginning it is not very easy to use this program.

When you are going to design the cover yourself, you have to take the spine thickness into account. You  need to calculate the thickness of the spine. By entering the number of pages, paper type and binding methoud, our spine thickness calculator calculates the spine thickness for you. You can find the calculator on the page about thesis layout.

Need help designing your cover?

We are happy to help you out! We can do this in several ways:

1. You create the cover of your thesis yourself.

In this case, you have to take several specifications and margins into account. These are described in our information booklet. Do you still have questions after reading the book? Feel free to contact us and we will discuss it together.

2. Gildeprint takes care of the layout of the cover.

In this case, you provide us with an image for the cover. You inform us about the further additions to the cover and we will get to work for you. According to your wishes we provide a cover.

3. We start a creative design process for a stunning cover.

If you have a special wish and want your cover to be a real eye-catcher, we will start a creative process. We will connect you with one of our experienced designers who will shape your wishes into a fantastic cover.

See more here.

Our common goal is a dissertation to be proud of! Would you like to know more about the possibilities we offer? Feel free to contact us or request a quote without obligation.

DigitalCommons@RISD

Home > Center for Arts & Language > Thesis Writing > 2

Thesis Writing

A Guide to Thesis Book Design

Marcus Peabody , Rhode Island School of Design Follow Center for Arts and Language , Rhode Island School of Design Follow

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57 pages. "This guide is more basic and specific than other design manuals. Used in isolation it should tell you all you need to produce your book, even without prior graphic design knowledge. It could also be a starting point for a deeper dive into book design: other manuals that deal more thoroughly with elements such as book binding or typography are mentioned along the way for further reference." – from the introduction. "This book is set in Brandon Grotesque and Miller Text. Written and designed by Marcus Peabody (GD MFA 2019). Edited by Jen Liese and Meredith Barrett (A&L). Additional design and typesetting by Everett Epstein (GD MFA 2020)." – Colophon

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© Rhode Island School of Design 2019

masters theses, thesis, dissertations, book design, case studies, electronic dissertations, graduate students, artists' books, book making, thesis book, academic writing, printing, guides

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Peabody, Marcus and Arts and Language, Center for, "A Guide to Thesis Book Design" (2019). Thesis Writing . 2. https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/centerforartsandlanguage_thesiswriting/2

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Blog • Book Design

Last updated on Feb 29, 2024

How to Design a Book Cover: 7 Steps for Professional Results

A book’s cover is one of the most important marketing assets that authors have at their disposal. A great cover design will communicate the book’s content and tone in the blink of an eye, attracting new readers wandering through a bookstore or browsing Amazon, and potentially doubling your sales . 

So, what does it take to create an outstanding cover design? In this post, we’ve teamed up with Reedsy’s designer, Raúl Gil, to show you how publishing professionals create their world-class cover designs.

How to design a book cover:

1. Take inspiration from other covers

2. pick the right design tools, 3. choose a genre-fitting concept, 4. select a design style, 5. adapt and develop your concept, 6. balance the title and author name, 7. adapt the design to other book formats.

FREE RESOURCE

Cover Design Checklist

Make sure your book cover ticks all the boxes with our handy guide.

Research and planning should be an essential step in all design projects. With book covers, that research should be focused on two of the design’s main goals, which are how to:

• Attract the attention of the book’s target reader and
• Communicate genre, tone, and content.

Thankfully, publishing is a trend-driven industry, and the creative choices of top publishers are reflected in the books you find on your local high street.

Snoop around bookshops, libraries, or online retailers

Mainstream bookshops are especially useful places to start since they will stock books that are selling right now and will only carry the latest editions (so you won’t be misled by 30-year-old cover designs).

When looking at books in your genre, you’ll want to note any common uses of color, imagery, and general approach to design. 

Here’s an (edited) snapshot of top-selling psychological thrillers on Amazon at the start of 2024:

At a glance, you might see that many of these covers:  

• Use a font similar to Helvetica, a sans serif typeface that feels quite contemporary. 
• Employ a certain amount of yellow, red, and blue in some of the designs.
• Feature a character who’s obscured in some way.

All genres have their trends and tropes, and a good designer should be aware of them before working up their concepts. Once you’ve gathered this intel, use it in your design to communicate what your book is about.

But before diving into the design process, deciding on the tools you’ll use is crucial .

A poor craftsperson blames their tools — however, Leonardo didn’t compose the Mona Lisa with crayons. So before you get too far into the design process, you need to know two things:

• What software are you using to design your cover?
• Will you be proficient enough in that software to bring your ideas to life?

If you’re not 100% certain of your digital design skills, look into hiring a professional cover designer for your project. You can still remain in creative control of how the book looks, but with their market knowledge and ability to execute a design, a pro will give you the best chance of giving your book the design it deserves.

MEET COVER DESIGNERS

Get an amazing book cover

Let readers judge your book by its (professionally-designed) cover.

If you’re confident in your abilities, let’s look at some of the most popular book cover design apps and see which one you’d be best suited to.

Professional-grade software

Consumer software.

Now that you know the tools at your disposal to bring your cover to life, let’s get creative. In the next few sections, we’re going to show you what goes on in a professional designer’s mind when they’re working on a new project. You’ll get an insight into their process and hopefully be able to apply this methodology to your own design.

Rocket Bride: A Case Study 

For the rest of this guide, we will demonstrate the cover design process with the help of Reedsy’s in-house designer, Raúl Gil, who will design a cover for a hypothetical novel that we will call... Rocket Bride . This book doesn’t exist, but if it did, this is what it would be about:

Rocket Bride is a space opera targeted mainly at a romance-reading audience. It centers on a princess who’s engaged to an evil land developer and the roguish intergalactic smuggler who helps the princess escape on her wedding day. Like oil and water, chalk and cheese, these two heroes are unlikely accomplices — and maybe even unlikelier lovers. 

But before we start throwing around any ideas, we first need to decide on the concept and style that our cover will take.

The only way to find a suitable concept is to first come up with a bunch of ideas that are off the mark, kinda good, or wrong but headed in the right direction. Even professional designers who know what they’re doing start by throwing ideas at the wall and seeing what sticks.

Book Cover Concept Worksheet

Use our step-by-step template to create a strong cover concept.

As a starting point, ask yourself: What emotions do you want your cover to evoke?

Capture the book’s tone at a glance

In today’s publishing landscape, more readers are buying their books from online retailers like Amazon. The average shopper will only see a small thumbnail of a book’s cover — and perhaps only for a fraction of a second. Bearing that in mind, your design needs to be clear, fairly simple, and communicate your book’s emotional tone.

From your research, you should have a good idea of how covers in your niche communicate the tone of the book. If it’s a thriller novel, it may be dark and mysterious, like the design for A Flicker in the Dark . If it’s a humorous nonfiction book, it’ll use lighter colors and feature an image that conveys the concept and tone of the book, like the cover of Jenette McCurdy’s funny, gallowsy memoir.

But beyond that, what else can draw readers to a book?

Characters (with or without eyes)

Fiction readers, broadly speaking, can be enticed by a character they’d want to spend 300-odd pages with. To that end, you will see covers that feature a character from the book. 

In certain genres, you’ll notice that character faces are often concealed in some way. You’ll rarely see a character’s full face on literary fiction and mystery novels. They might be backlit (as is common in thrillers) or obscured by some design feature. There are many reasons why this might be the case, but we think it boils down to the fact that readers want to put themselves in a protagonist’s shoes — and if they see a model’s face on the front cover, it makes it hard for them to recast themselves as the hero of the story.

Though, of course, there are exceptions. Books adapted to film will often have tie-in covers featuring the poster art – after all, who’d say no to having Leo DiCaprio’s face on your book? Romance is another example of where you’d see a character’s face — the old cliché of handsome shirtless cover models remains as true today as it was in the Fabio era .  

If your genre’s design trends call for a character to feature on the cover, think about how much of their face you want to show. 

In the case of Rocket Bride , we’re taking a lead from popular books in the women’s fiction and cozy romance spaces and depicting our main characters in illustrated form. In line with the trends, we will show full-body images of our lead characters — though it’s worth noting that having stylized, hand-drawn depictions of these characters does leave some wiggle room for readers to imagine themselves as the leads in the story in a way that a photo of an Abercrombie & Fitch model doesn’t.

Location and period

Readers also like knowing where a book is set and are often attracted to books that promise to take them off to a certain time and place. Take a look at these examples:

The cover for Taylor Jenkins Reid’s The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, while foregrounding a character, uses costume to tell readers that they’re in for a dose of Old Hollywood glamor. (Note how you don’t see her eyes!)

The jacket for Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Children of Time instantly says that we’re going to a retro-futuristic world where people travel the galaxy in broken-down hunks of junk. 

For books that offer readers a sliver of escapist entertainment, a focus on location can oftentimes be a winner.

Iconography

Going back to what we said about covers only having a split second of a browser’s attention, you’ll see more covers these days leaning towards very simple and iconographic — something that is either recognizable or evokes instant meaning. 

In the past twenty-odd years, you’re likely to see this approach with literary novels, but with an increasingly digitally minded approach, it’s also become commonplace in genre fiction.

Take a look at the three examples and see how they use simple, iconic images to make an impression:

• RF Kuang’s Yellowface has a striking design that says all it needs to say with its recognizable depiction of East Asian eyes on a solid yellow background.
• The cover for Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow recontextualizes Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa.
• Every entry in Richard Osman’s bestselling Thursday Murder Club series can be recognized by its type-led design and simple fox motif.

Rocket Bride: An illustrated approach with character, tone, and location

With all this in mind, we shared some comp titles from the world of contemporary romance and women’s fiction. In line with the classic B-Movie tone of the story, we also sent him some examples of Jet Age imagery that we thought would be suitable for Rocket Bride’s  cover.

In our discussion with Raúl, we talked about the humor of the story, but also the bristling romance of Classic Hollywood. The relationship between our two heroes is like Hepburn and Bogart in The African Queen ; like Han and Leia in Star Wars . We wanted the cover to convey the fact that this book is feisty, fun, and far from the hard sci-fi books that many casual romance readers would normally avoid. It’s more Princess Bride than Dune .

After sending him our design brief , Raúl soon returned with a concept that showed our lead characters and science fiction setting, rendered with a sense of excitement and romance.

With a basic concept in place, you’ll want to make sure you know how you’re going to bring this idea to life.

Broadly speaking, there are four ways that you can approach your cover — each led by the type of imagery that will dominate the design. Pretty much every title you’ll see in a bookshop will fall into one of these four categories:

Stock image-led

The vast majority of book covers released by major publishers will feature stock images that are then cropped, manipulated, or edited into the design. You see a lot of these covers in most romance subgenres, as well as crime/thrillers and self-help.

Type-led designs

You’ll see this approach in a lot of nonfiction and literary fiction these days, where the focus of the design is a creative manipulation of the title text.

Illustrated covers

These range from intricate, life-like illustrations of the book’s world (which you’d see on the cover of a lot of Fantasy and Science Fiction), to evocative works of abstract art that you might find on the front of a literary fiction novel.

Photography

This is where new photography is commissioned for the cover design. These days, you only see this style of cover on celebrity memoir covers, where the big selling point is the author.

😁 Check more covers made by Reedsy designers by browsing our book cover gallery !

If you were looking to hire a professional to make your cover, you would first decide which style is best for your book, then seek out designers who specialize in that style.

Our market research shows that cozy illustrations are fairly common in women’s fiction and certain (non-historical) romance subgenres. With this in mind, we committed to an illustrated design for Rocket Bride .

Raúl soon returned with various versions of his original concept, presenting a few different executions of the same idea: our space princess being whisked away by our roguish space pirate.

Of these concepts, we ultimately decided to move forward with version #3. It captures the sense of adventure and romance at the core of Rocket Bride : the pose of its main characters reminded us of classic romance covers with a hint of fun and a healthy dose of mid-century sci-fi imagery. 

📏 Before you go much further with the design, make sure you’re working to the right dimensions. For ebooks, the standard front cover size on KDP is 2560 x 1600 pixels. We’ll dive into the specifics of print editions later on in this guide.  

Once you’ve landed on your final concept, you can treat it as a jumping-off point and start to play around with the small details that’ll impact how your reader engages with the cover.

Focus on the details that matter

In the course of refining the concept, you shouldn’t get carried away with cramming in too many details. There’s a temptation to add extra elements into your design, like a full moon, an abandoned house, or an extra character. A professional designer will be able to pull off those things — but if you’re doing it yourself, remember that less is almost always more.

From Raul’s original concept for Rocket Bride, we were able to request a few changes. We loved the fun tone of the illustration, but felt like some of the details were a bit too close to The Jetsons for our liking. We also wanted the background to resemble the American Southwest a bit more. With this feedback, Raúl tweaked the design by changing out our hero’s weapon, removing the rocketship, and adding in some stunning Monument Valley-style buttes.

Note: If you’re working with a professional designer, you may have agreed in your contract how many rounds of redesigns you’re entitled to as part of your fee. Try to include as much feedback at once and have a discussion with your designer about what is practical.

In our case, Raúl was happy to make extra changes while in the sketching phase, so we had him refine the character design. He gave Captain Perseus some rugged battle scars and added a third eye to Princess Andromeda (an essential part of her character backstory).

With the details locked in, it’s time to put a lick of paint on it.

See what color schemes pop out (and fit in)

Your design style will determine how much color-tweaking can be done at this stage: for example, the sky’s the limit for illustrators, while those working with stock images may be limited by the original photo (or their Photoshop skills). 

However, even a small change in color temperature or a slight hint of color can transform how the design will impact the reader. 

In the example above, the designer of Angela Morrison’s Sing Me to Sleep used a licensed stock image from Shutterstock then recolored the character’s sleeve and added ‘atmosphere’ in the form of digital snowflakes.

Note: make sure you pay for image licenses. If your cover design includes licensed images, it’s at this stage that you’ll have to purchase the rights to use them. Professional designers will typically use watermarked and low-resolution images in their initial concepts until you approve the final (truly final) version. If you’re hiring a pro to create your design , they will usually handle the licensing for you.

Returning to your research, you might have an idea of the color schemes trending in your genre. Again, we’re not saying that you need to adhere to tropes — but if you’re stuck for ideas, it can’t hurt to try out a color palate that instantly communicates the genre of your book.

For Rocket Bride, Raúl took our preferred concept and applied a few different color schemes that were inspired by science fiction imagery, retrofuturist design, and pulp cover art from the mid-20th century.

Each version lends the design a slightly different vibe and emotional quality — some more nostalgic, some more menacing. There are also some genre implications: the version with the blood red dust could have a superhero comic book feel, while versions E and F remind us of spaghetti westerns.

After mulling these options over, we decided to go with Version C, with pastel shades that you’d see in contemporary rom-com novels — offsetting the sci-fi setting and letting the readers know that this isn’t just a straightforward shoot ’em up in space.

If you haven’t already, this is the point where you’ll start adding all the elements that make a book cover more than just a piece of art. In this section, we’ll show you how to avoid some of the most common mistakes we’ve seen on self-made book covers.

Make the important bits easy to read

Once again, quick communication is key to your success. You want the reader to glean the most important bits of text in the half-second that they might look at it — which means that there’s no room for error. Contrast is one of the most important things to consider for text placement. There needs to be enough of a color difference between the text and the background so that your title and author name are easy to read (see below: Aya’s Blood ).

In the second example, The Cowboy’s Last Song , you can see that the designer has created contrast by laying the title over a shadow in the middle of the page. While this does greatly help with legibility , it adds a bit of unintentional muddiness to the final design.

Use two to three fonts

For the sake of minimizing your cover’s busyness, don’t use too many typefaces. If you check out the books on your shelves, you’ll probably notice that there aren’t more than two or three fonts at play . Between the title, the author’s name, and any other text you want to include on the cover, you can find a way to make two fonts stretch.

Give your author name the right size

The general rule of thumb is that the more famous you are, the bigger your name will be on the cover. After all, STEPHEN KING is more enticing to readers than the words FAIRY TALE. But if you’re reading this, you’re probably not Stephen King, so make sure that your name doesn’t take up too much real estate. For a good example, look at Stacy Willingham’s A Flicker in the Dark , which nicely balances the title and the author’s name, favoring the former over the latter.

Loglines, reviews, and testimonials

Another common element you’ll see on almost every cover is either a short logline or testimonial (usually from an established print outlet, author, or authority on the subject matter of your book). Let’s look at two examples:

Readers are so used to seeing thousands of book covers every year, and almost every one of them will have some sort of logline or testimonial (or even just a line that says “from the author of X book”) — so if your design is missing this element, your cover is in danger of feeling a bit naked.

So, putting all of these into practice, let’s add some copy to Rocket Bride .

Rocket Bride: Bespoke title treatment

In the case of Rocket Bride, we were clear that the title had to be more prominent than the author’s name, so the relationship between texts was clear. We stuck to a single font for all the text, varying their weight, size, and color. 

From the first sketches, we reserved a safe area at the base of the illustration on which to accommodate the title without contrast problems.

Visually, we wanted a dynamic treatment of the text that could provide expressiveness to the composition and enhance the “light science fiction” component of the novel. So, we used a condensed and thick typeface to form a solid typographic mass, and then we skewed it, adapting it to the forms and counterforms of the base illustration. 

Finally, we added a small graphic treatment in which a small rocket moves in the direction of the text — a typographic treatment that’s more than just expository text. The title “Rocket Bride” almost becomes the book’s logo, a brand that we can read and recognize even in small thumbnails on online platforms.

But wait! We’re not done just yet.

Now that the front cover has been completed, all that’s left is to use the design to fit your various book formats. 

Export ebook covers with the correct dimensions

Ebooks are the simplest format to deal with, simply because they only require a front cover. Amazon states a preferred size of 2,560 pixels x 1,600 pixels. To ensure you’re exporting them in the correct size and format, check with your retailer’s website:

• Kindle Direct Publishing: eBook cover standards
• Apple Books: Cover Art
• Google Play Store: Book file guidelines 
• Kobo Writing Life: Setting up a new eBook
• Draft2Digital: FAQ

If you’re looking to publish in print formats, whether you’re offset printing or using print-on-demand , there are additional elements you’ll need to consider. If the following steps are more complicated than you’re happy with, you can always hire a professional to adapt your design into a full set of mechanicals (as it’s called in the industry).

Mind the typographic hierarchy on the back cover

The design of your book’s back cover can play an essential role in selling the book. You can incorporate elements like reviews, endorsements, the book’s blurb , your author bio , and social media handles to tell potential readers a bit more about yourself.

In deciding how big all the elements should be, try to think about the experience of an average reader. What information do you want to know when you hold a book in your hands and turn it over? A descending hierarchy — where the most important details are the largest in size — will guide the reader appropriately. 

In order, you might be looking at:

• Hook or logline (largest)
• Reviews and awards
• Social media and contact (smallest)

Once you figure out where all these blocks will go on the back cover, you can assign them a spot in your type hierarchy to lead readers through a little journey. 

Play around with the spine

One of the challenges of making a full cover is to get the spine right, since it depends on the book format, binding type, paper stock, and page count you choose.

Not all books are so long as to have a large spine, so in most cases, they are usually resolved with the most essential information: title and author. But a spine is an interesting area of action in terms of design.

Imagine people looking for a book on the shelves of a bookstore or library: an original spine can attract a reader’s eye more effectively.

In the case of Rocket Bride , we not only made sure to display the typographic information at an appropriate size and contrast, but we also introduced the faces of the main protagonists and a rocket logo.

Be careful with bleeding and margins

When arranging the different design elements on the cover, remember to maintain sufficient margins and an extra area for bleeding, which is necessary for the printing and cutting process. 

Most print services will usually offer templates to help you get your proportions right. KDP, for example, has a cover calculator and template generator that will turn out a PDF that you can import into your image editing software and lay over your design.

And don’t forget to leave some space for the ISBN barcode , which usually goes at the bottom left or right. And if you choose to get an ASIN barcode from Amazon, simply keep that area clean, and Amazon will add the code to it.

With that, you can export your print cover files as a PDF, ready to upload to your print service.

Create a cover for the audiobook version 

Adapting your cover design to a square format may mean needing a larger image to cover the entire area and fit properly with the specific composition of that context. Keep this in mind when hiring a photographer, illustrator, or designer.

(Note how the square format requires a larger illustrated area.)

And other promotional material

You finally have it: a shiny, brand-new book cover you can use to represent your book on the shelves and across all marketing channels! You might want to create a variety of 3D mockup images to use on digital ads, social media cover photos, or on your author’s website . 

You can use sites like Canva or Placeit to do it yourself, or if you’re collaborating with a professional, make sure to discuss this additional service before starting the project.

As you’ve probably realized by now, this process involves thorough industry research, creative brainstorming, and technical expertise, which is why we encourage indie authors to work with professionals in the field .  

While the fate of our princess and intergalactic smuggler remains a mystery, one thing is certain: their story boasts an outstanding cover, and your book deserves the same!

Continue reading

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Undergraduate Thesis

• Preparing for Thesis
• Elements of Thesis
• List of References
• Images and Figures
• Library Home

Books on Layout

CLICK TO VIEW IN THE LIBRARY CATALOG

Sign in to Lynda.com to access this resource. If you don't have an account you can  sign up here. 

Designing a Book with Nigel French

Creating a book in InDesign from Designing a Book by Nigel French

Foundations of Layout and Composition: Grids with Sean Adams

Welcome from Graphic Design Foundations: Layout and Composition by Sean Adams

Graphic Design Tutorial: Designing to a Grid

NewSchool recommends Adobe InDesign for designing your thesis book. Many free templates and tutorials are available online. Try starting with Blurb.com. 

The grid is your underlying structure which helps create visual hierarchy by sizing and positioning images and text to create a coherent design. The grid is the graphic expression of a set of assumptions about the permissible sizes and shapes of images and blocks of text. It enables you to achieve and sustain design consistency.

Your prime consideration for text should always be legibility. Text needs to be readable and perfectly clear. Don't allow it to compete with or obscure images; it should always work with them to explain and enhance them. Keep text clearly separate from images by spacing and/or maintaining a strong contrast between values of the images and values of the text blocks.

Familiarize yourself with type, it's legibility and emotional impact, by studying the typefaces used in books and magazines and on the web. Remember less is more--don't use more the three different fonts in any portfolio. Additionally, make sure all of the fonts are very different looking to create contrast.

Basics in Graphic Design

Remember, your thesis layout should follow graphic design standards. Here are recommended resources on design concepts including text, images, color, and white space.

See Examples of Attractive Layout Here

Ambrose / Harris. (2005).  Basics Design 02: Layout.  AVA Academia.

Linton, H. (2012).  Portfolio Design 4th ed.  W.W. Norton & Company.

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The 103 Best Book Covers of 2022

As chosen by our favorite book cover designers.

For what is now the seventh time in a row, I am pleased to present the best book covers of the year—as chosen by some of the industry’s best book cover designers.

This year, I asked 31 designers to share their favorite covers of the year, and they came back with a grand total of 103 covers, representing work by 62 different designers for 54 different imprints. Their choices, and their comments, are below.

But first . . . the stats.

The best of the best book covers:

First place (tie, six mentions each):

Elias Canetti, I Want to Keep Smashing Myself Until I Am Whole design by Alex Merto , illustration by Ian Woods (Picador, September 27)

Tess Gunty, The Rabbit Hutch design by Linda Huang (Knopf, August 2)

Second place (three-way tie, five mentions each):

Fernando A. Flores, Valleyesque design and illustration by Na Kim (MCD x FSG Originals, May 3)

Charles Simic, No Land in Sight design by John Gall (Knopf, August 9)

Lidia Yuknavitch, Thrust design by Lauren Peters-Collaer (Riverhead, June 28)

Third place (nine-way tie (!), four mentions each):

Michael Cunningham/Virginia Woolf, The Hours/Mrs. Dalloway design by Pablo Delcan (Picador, May 3)

Katherine J. Chen,  Joan design by Holly Ovenden (Hodder & Stoughton, July 5)

Missouri Williams, The Doloriad design by Luke Bird (Dead Ink, March 3)

Jem Calder, Reward System design by Alex Merto (FSG, July 19)

Yiyun Li, The Book of Goose design by Na Kim (FSG, September 20)

Maayan Eitan, Love design by Stephanie Ross (Penguin Press, March 8)

Gwen E. Kirby, Shit Cassandra Saw design and illustration by Lydia Ortiz (Penguin Books, January 11)

Sheila Heti, Pure Colour design by Na Kim (FSG, February 13)

Ling Ma, Bliss Montage design by Rodrigo Corral (FSG, September 13)

The presses with the most covers on the list:

First Place (13 mentions): FSG

Second Place (11 mentions):  Knopf

Third Place (8 mentions):  New Directions

The designers with the most different covers on the list:

First Place (7 covers): Janet Hansen

Second Place (6 covers): Na Kim

Third Place (5 covers): Alex Merto

The best month for book covers:

First Place (tie, 12 covers each): May, September

Second Place (11 covers): June

Third Place (10 covers): April

The full list:

I can’t stop looking at this eye-bending collage. Love how the hectic, unsettled type complements the art, channels the title really well, and manages to get quite a lot of copy onto the cover. Neon orange is a great touch.

– Jamie Stafford-Hill

This is such a fun cover. I love the brain-like cutout and the playful, head-smashing type treatment.

– June Park

This cover looks like its title; smashed yet whole.

– Stephanie Ross

How? What? It’s insane. I love it.

Alex has somehow woven together two images with a shape that isn’t exactly conventional and set the type playfully without making the whole thing look like a messy plate of spaghetti. He is in complete control of his craft.

– Linda Huang

Alex! I want to keep staring at your collage to see how you did this.

– Mark Abrams

When I first saw this I was blown away by Linda’s use of color, texture, negative space, and the delicately balanced typography and illustration. The jacket is printed on a lithofoil stock that gives it that extra special sheen. Not only did the author win the NBA for fiction, but she was also given one of the most beautiful covers of the year.

– Emily Mahon

These bright colors suck me in when viewed in RGB, and the design gets “even better” when experienced IRL, printed on that lovely metallic paper.

– Zoe Norvell

I am instantly pulled in by the bright colors and symbolic design. I want this as an art print on my wall.

– Sarah Brody

It’s always nice to see special effects being used thoughtfully. That gradient plus shimmer is beautiful.

– Joan Wong

“Shot through the heart and you’re to blame” taken literally.

– Erik Carter

This cover just stands out so much online and on the shelf. The bold composition + foil + soft touch, it’s a stunner.

Na is such a talent in both design and illustration. This cover really shows how skilled she is in both worlds.

Valleyesque received a well deserved gasp from me. With a palette and style that connects you to some of the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch and in a similar fashion, begs you to look closer at the tiny details and intrigues you to want to learn more.

– Nicole Caputo

If I could dictate the visual language of my dreams, this is what I would choose every single time (complete with banner-wielding poodles).

– Alison Forner

I truly cannot get over this surreal, incredible art.

– Lauren Peters-Collaer

Every element in this dreamlike painting is treated with such balance and thought, creating deep intrigue.

Thrust is perfection. Each collaged detail feels like it belongs exactly where it is. The combination of textures, styles, the two contrasting typefaces sent me marching to the store.

This design is bonkers in the best way possible. Every moment here, from the image to the typography, is fresh and unexpected.

I have no idea what is happening and I love it.

– Grace Han

Such a fun and intriguing collage with a ton of upward momentum. Somehow the clashing typography adds to that sense of kinetic energy too.

– Vivian Lopez Rowe

I love how the upside down balloons look like raindrops or tears. Really fantastic cover design made to look really easy.

– Jamie Keenan

Such wonderful simplicity. Each time I look at it I can sense my brain processing it all—everything clicking into place with delight. As an aside, I highly recommend everyone watch a hot air balloon inflate at least once in their life. They are like dinosaurs roaming the sky.

– Lauren Harms

Effortlessly beautiful and dreamlike.

The simple move of turning an image upside down is so powerful here, especially paired with the title.

Great design, though I spotted a printer error; the photo is upside down. Awkward.

Such a beauty! The pressed flowers with the gold foil type is so sweet and lovely. A true object to treasure.

– Kelly Winton

Simply beautiful.

These made me shriek. Exquisitely executed, ethereal, and clever, they exist in the realm of fine art. Pablo makes everyone jealous.

Printed on uncoated stock with deboss on the type, I want this book just for the beautiful jacket. Holly is an amazing designer and illustrator, and this is my favorite cover of the year from the UK.

This stunning cover reimagines the subject of Joan of Arc in such a powerful way. The type and colors are so unexpected and pack such a bold punch.

– Kimberly Glyder

Ah the colours…they are glorious. It’s very satisfying when type works as an image within a cover; it’s such a pleasing composition, a real beauty, as are all of Holly’s designs.

– Anna Morrison

The colors are stunning—feels energizing to just look at! It captures the spirit of Joan of Arc in such a fresh and dynamic way.

I couldn’t work out if it was a contemporary artwork or an old painting, whether the person is unhinged or if it is just the crop playing tricks on me. It’s so engrossing, and sets the tone for what sounds like a mad book without giving anything away.

– Tom Etherington

The reviews of this book all use words like “bizarre”, “unsettling”, “disturbing” or “challenging”—they could be reviewing the cover too. “Brilliant.”

The power of a great crop! It’s so effectively unsettling and compelling.

The cropping and lettering is perfection.

– Jaya Miceli

The simplicity in this is striking. Perfect example of less is more.

So simple, elegant, and perfect.

Stephanie takes what would otherwise be a clichéd icon and subverts it with that slight grimace. The placement in the mass of negative space and the choice of a rough-hewn serif elicit in me a feeling of mono no aware , something design rarely does.

Looking easy is very hard.

– Gregg Kulick

You can almost smell this cover. Amazing.

So vibrant! This cover hits all the senses! (Get your hands on a copy for the glowing color, glossy finish, and raised type!)

– Ann Kirchner

Just so brilliantly executed.

– Luke Bird

The distorted type is perfect. It feels like you’re suffocating in a bag of oranges and need to get out.

Simple. Clever. Ominous.

Just the sight of that spinning wheel makes me feel slightly anxious (it seems to move now and again, too). This is such a simple cover, but with such a lot going on.

I just stare at it waiting for the cover to load… Well played…

– David Litman

There is always a tension you have to interrogate as to how you want to communicate the title of a book. What Na Kim did with this cover was take one of the most direct routes possible while still leaving room for ambiguity with the shape and placement of Ellsworth Kelly’s art. No small feat for a title this simple.

The simplicity and minimalism of this design is so satisfying.

I love the way the green blob almost seems like a monster overtaking the title, and the way it just barely overlaps with the “L” in “NOVEL” is perfection.

– Colleen Reinhart

It’s so elegantly done. Ellsworth Kelly’s Green crowding out the text on the cover somehow feels exactly like the book does; a crowded petri dish of emotions.

Euurgh its just SO beautiful. Perfection. But what else would you expect from Na Kim? I don’t just want to read it… I want it on my wall too.

Love how all the elements interact with each other.

Na is great at creating simple yet emotive covers. The mix of the Audubon-esque art and the graphic sun gives this cover a nice contemporary yet elegant look.

Gorgeous. There’s something about a goose neck.

I can’t imagine what those burning eyes saw. The type on fire and mouth slightly open seals the deal for this one.

– Stephen Brayda

Crazy! Love it.

Frantic to the max and I just love looking at this. Its also worth nothing that getting this to print so vibrantly was no small challenge.

I was so relieved to realize this beautiful book was published in early January, and that I could include it on this list! It was an instant favorite of mine—the balance of pattern, color, and texture is just perfect. The elements work well on their own and come together in a wonderful whole.

LPC does it again! Everything about this cover is incredible: the colors, the collage of imagery, the typography! It’s nuanced and packs a punch at the same time.

– Laywan Kwan

I think this one took everyone’s breath away when it came out—the colors, the type, it all works beautifully together.

The solo tear drop is a perfect device to hold the requisite “memoir” type, elevating this simple biography cover to something double-take worthy.

Mean Baby just keeps creeping into my mind. A fantastic crop of the image and combination of photo, title and that subtitle placement! Simple, eye catching and jumped off screens and shelves and is memorable.

Designing celebrity books can be hard, and making something that stands out is even harder. There are so many parts that are involved and getting to a place that is so elegant and interesting is a feat.

Beautiful arrangement of type and imagery. The design has an ethereal quality and love how the structured grid interacts with the gradient watercolors.

Immediately draws you in! I love everything about this, the way the type seemingly moves through the squares, the holographic quality, the various water textures.

So much energy and movement captured within a grid—I could puzzle over these tiles for hours.

Such a simple design, yet so incredibly unnerving—it’s a design you can almost hear. Perfectly captures a break with reality.

So elegantly illustrates a book about those who occupy the “psychic hinterlands, the outer edges of human experience, where language tends to fail.”

Deceptively simple, really effective.

Love how Linda utilizes the type here, the way the bold flat title sits against the textural photographic background. I find myself wanting to “look around” to see what’s hiding behind it. The bits of aliasing on the title is a lovely cherry on the top touch.

The title stretched into the black shapes is brilliant.

– Jenny Carrow

I’m a sucker for letters as shapes and in this case it really works with the title.

UK publishers seem to have had a crisis of confidence recently, a lot of books seem to have three endorsements on the front cover now and all type at 72pts. Sometimes it feels like on this side of the Atlantic we have forgotten that books are physical objects that people covet, rather than a jpeg that needs to shout louder than everything else around it. When I first saw Brother Alive in a bookshop it stood out against the other books because of its bold, understated cover design.

So bloody simple and ambiguous—I have no idea what it is about, but that cover is just drawing me in. I love how Jo has pulled everything back to an abstract image, and the type is perfectly balanced. Jo is one of my favourite cover designers, she just nails it every time.

Love the allusion to sheet music and the consistency of the line weight throughout. The art really works here; haunting and unexpected.

Ethereal mushrooms floating through the air against a scale that seamlessly integrate with the type: 😘

Another Janet cover, Sedating Elaine must be mentioned. You can tell the inside will be darkly comedic and a wild ride and I even love the combination of the quote typeface combined with the roughly hand-lettering across the banana.

Every year, Janet’s work stands out for its beautiful simplicity. She takes something familiar, like lettering on a piece of fruit, and somehow makes it look better than ever.

This ominous and frankly sad painting paired with the electric blue text feels both classic and edgy.

Unsettling and striking image with brilliant type.

A gorgeous and thoughtful design. The collage so elegantly captures the power of language and communication.

There’s a satisfying simplicity to this cover; all the elements are arranged so elegantly.

The illustration with this title packs so much emotion.

I love the gestural quality and simplicity of the illustration. The thin, italicized type is such an excellent choice in mimicking the slender, linear feel of the art.

Love the drama happening here. Beautiful type and illustration. As off-beat as the classic Geek Love jacket while doing its own thing entirely.

It’s no easy feat to make a long title like this work so elegantly, but this cover pulls it off. The silhouetted hand is simple at first glance, but the nail illustrations and hand position (hitting the author’s name ever so slightly), bring a beautiful complexity.

A hand cover, but a fantastic hand cover. Adore the little scenes painted on fingernails.

Such a bright and fresh look! The colors are stunning—super saturated and bold, both on screen and in print. And the line quality of the illustration has a beautiful personality. I especially love the bits of color bleed and overprinting.

Nostalgic but with a really modern, vibrant palette. Balanced beautifully. Looks even better in the flesh that it does on screen.

This cover doesn’t even need the title to convey disorientation. The waffle-wrapped-hot dog is such a weird and especially disorienting touch.

Brilliant design—so much movement and energy that come across using just type as image.

Mind-bending in the best possible way.

Beautiful and rich, and very clever in its layers of illusion.

– Allison Saltzman

Beautiful execution of this concept. And upside down type! and it works! Give Derek a big hand (sorry).

I love the creative usage of all the different fonts on this cover. It really taps into my inner child of the ’80s!

So playful and well done.

The type on this is mesmerizing. The stacked, repeating type with the rainbow gradient fits perfectly with the title.

I wasn’t quite sure what to think when I saw this for the first time, but it stayed with me. Now that I caught up with it, I love it!

Outer space salami statue.

I don’t know what this book is about, other than being darkly comic and featuring a diabolical nun, but the cover makes me want to read it.

There’s something so unsettling about the reduced palette and diseased looking dots combined with the loaded religious imagery. It really pulls you in, without resorting to anything heavy-handed or “easy.”

I love the saturated color palette and the dimensionality of the type. This design gives such a sense of place. And the title font choice is amazing!

I honestly can not stop looking at this because every element works so perfectly together to create such a specific atmosphere and setting, it’s a really well-crafted cover!

Exquisite typography and execution. Having the candy beautifully photographed really takes this to the next level.

While the image does clearly depict the title (which could work against a designer), the inverted photo and silhouetted head, the limited palette, and the gorgeous hand lettering make this cover so appealing.

The tactile, handmade quality of the cover and the domestic scene contrasts beautifully with the “cold people” evoked in the title.

I love the unique perspective here—it feels as if you’re flying with the figure, diving head-first into that neighborhood. I had an almost visceral response to this illustration; I felt connected to the character without even opening the book.

I’ve long admired the work of both Gabriele and Cecilia so to see a collaboration on the always thoughtfully designed poetry society chapbooks was a treat. This one is my favorite.

This type creates within me a sort of effervescent joy.

Smart and succinct pairing of subject and graphics.

Surreal, simple and smart, and the stones are the perfect subtle addition.

Very clever.

I’m getting nuanced, Lisa Frank vibes and that is high praise.

Op-art! Very satisfying.

Perfect match of art and lettering, inventive layout, great use of color.

There are a lot of things that I love about this cover, but I’ll just say this: We rarely see book covers that embrace the color purple and this one does it oh, so well!

Less is more with Teenager . My eye travels down the highway right to the sun, the perfectly placed eye of the teenage face.

A refreshingly light approach to historical fiction.

This is a standout for me. I would notice it from across the room. A very original layout with a unique color palette, and those thick, black lines holding it all together.

Powerful, elegant, and haunting.

Am drawn immediately into this cover, an eerie porthole into fraying world.

Kudos to Amanda for taking something that is so reviled (yuck, pimples!) and for displaying them in such a cute way. This design is so inviting.

Books about music have to look authentic and this does such a good job.

The best “torn paper cover” ever. Clever concept. I know the designer worked with physical pieces of paper and scanned them in, and it really shows.

A complicated and abstract subject—care—visualized in an equally abstract but simple form.

Something about the strange, soft, almost tactile illustration draws and holds the eye. Just lovely to look at, perfectly balanced with interesting but understated type, and I love how the arm wraps around onto the spine.

It takes a mind like Pablo’s and an open-minded publisher/art director to marry Jon Han’s incredible style with a nonfiction book and it works so so well.

The pairing of this typography with the artwork by Hollie Chastain is perfect and elegant.

Succinct and clever, which is hard to do. I love the simplicity of the design and how it interacts perfectly with the title.

This cover achieves a monumental, iconic feel with such economy—it’s magic.

Love how all of the elements are tied together with the blue circles. It has a big book look, but is also very artistic and elegant.

Maybe it’s the amount of time I’ve spent with the words “bestselling author” talking, but this is hilarious and inspired.

This retro cover is as eye-catching as the title, it will stand out on any bookshelf.

Bold colours, small type, unusual composition and Vivian Maier photographs. What’s not to love about these covers?

I love the color and the texture and that it sets a mood.

The illustration on this cover is so interesting. From a distance, it looks like an abstract cover of lines and color, but upon closer inspection you can see all the different scenes and couples!

This cover contains so much elegance, power and dignity, for a subject matter that could be difficult to illustrate. Michael Salu has created such a moving cover with the simplest of designs.

The type frame is so effective here. Everything just comes together perfectly.

When I first saw this cover it stopped me in my tracks—so intriguing. I love the textures, composition, colours; the eye just draws you in. The author line going up the side is genius, so unexpected. To create such an atmosphere within such a small space is a real gift.

One of the blurbers calls this book “ an ingenious pocket universe ,” which could describe the cover itself: a small package that locks you in its orbit—you can’t help but trace that fascinating lettering round and round!

I love the noise and fuzziness of the image, especially on the print edition where it’s amplified by lithofoil. The texture gives a sense of static and uncertainty before you even begin to read. A beautiful example of a darker image, and smaller type, standing out on shelves.

You would think seeing raw meat on a book cover would be offputting… but it really works here: meat as type! I love it.

Such a perfect—and totally intriguing—marriage of art, type, and title.

Oliver Munday summons up the spirit of Henryk Tomaszewski in this cover. Love it.

I adore Simone Noronha’s playful illustration and the way title treatment really lets the artwork shine.

This is such a powerful and direct image. The modern type beautifully frames the scene but doesn’t distract. I love that it’s all in black and white—the starkness and her gaze say so much.

With its pitch-perfect palette and bold, confident shapes, this cover just about leapt from the display table!

There’s just something magical about this beautiful blend of type, image, and idea.

This is my cover of the year—it literally sings in the bookshop, so striking! The illustration grabs your attention. The rest of the book is beautifully designed too, the end papers are gorgeous. I love it, just wonderful.

Love the simple line quality of this illustration and all its crooked crumbling pieces on the perfectly selected uncoated stock.

Amazing optical illusion created by beautifully set type, on rainbow holographic foil. Really nice.

Beautiful and restrained use of collaging to deliver a power image.

Such an ingenious way of integrating a woman’s profile into the scene.

Nobody Gets Out Alive looks straightforward, but again the small thoughtful details within the illustration, that are hidden so well by the gradient, are a smart, provocative but subtle easter egg for the viewer.

The usage of panels, color, and collage is so playful on this cover! Who knew you could make history look so fun and interesting?

Such a funny, crude doodle that looks like something Willem de Kooning would have sketched. I love that this illustration was printed on a commercial book cover.

Somehow the title and illustration don’t feel like they are competing, instead they work together seamlessly in this instantly iconic package.

A cross-stitch that’s unlike any other cross-stitch I’ve seen.

So punchy and eye-catching! The pink dripping dot gives the cover an intriguing sinister edge.

This design and golf vibes!

The plane and clouds float effortlessly against a wall of type that’s barely standing. So much energy packed into a small space—it feels like it’s vibrating and barely contained.

I want to run around inside this cover—the movement and dynamism are masterful.

I love the use of color, and yes! more cleverly incorporated profiles!

What a lovely way to work in the fifty-five panels. The diver makes you feel like you could dip in and out of these stories at any time.

Always envious when a designer can get away with so little, especially when the cover relies on so few bells and whistles: a strong yet refined typeface and unconventional spacing. This would be strong even without the empty circle. Pure graphic design.

Would like to come up with something wise here but I fear it might in truth boil down to “lolz I like ostriches.” In any case, one of best ostrich covers I have ever seen.

Love the balance and symmetry.

This feels very LA. I love the clever mix of typography and how the clear division on the strip mall sign implies the themes of the book in a really graceful and attention grabbing way.

What’s not to love?!

This cover is perhaps not as sophisticated as some of its more highbrow colleagues from the world of letters, but it communicates its startling content with admirable zest.

Emily Temple

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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Book cover design'

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Santos, Cátia Susana Amaral dos. "Book cover trends in American young adult literature." Master's thesis, Universidade de Aveiro, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10773/12888.

Bossuyt, Liv, and Märta Wolter. "A study in design of covers for self help books concerning depression." Thesis, Linköpings universitet, Medie- och Informationsteknik, 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-130016.

Beillon, Nathalie, and Fanny Runeby. "Unga vuxnas åsikter kring bokomslags formgivning : En enkät- och fokusgruppsundersökning." Thesis, Högskolan Dalarna, Grafisk teknologi, 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:du-11231.

Fransson, Jessica, and Linnea Funke. "Manlig eller kvinnligförfattare? : En analys av pocketböckersomslagsdesign utifrån ett genusperspektiv." Thesis, Högskolan Dalarna, Grafisk teknologi, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:du-19516.

Stanke, Maria Helena. "Boktrailern : varför marknadsföra text med ljud och bild?" Thesis, University West, Department of Economics and IT, 2010. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hv:diva-2607.

Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att introducera boktrailern som fenomen och marknadsföringsmetod. Likheter mellan boktrailern, bokomslaget och filmtrailern undersöks för att ge en bild av hur en "typisk" boktrailer ser ut och vilka funktioner den kan tänkas ha. Uppsatsen utforskar även boktrailerns möjligheter att nå ut till olika målgrupper i olika åldrar, samt pekar på svårigheter med att definiera en målgrupp. Ungdomslitteratur och fantasygenren kopplas samman med boktrailern och exempel ges på hur författare och förlag kan skapa relationer till läsare via Internet. Generella riktlinjer ges för vad som bör tänkas på för att tilltala flest potentiella läsare när en boktrailer används eller utformas. Boktrailerns förmåga att nå ut till unga, motvilliga läsare, som slutat läsa till fördel för bildbaserade berättarformer såsom filmer och datorspel, utforskas. Slutsatsen framhåller fördelarna med att marknadsföra böcker med ljud och bild.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the book trailer as a phenomenon and method of marketing. Similarities between the book trailer, the book cover and the movie trailer are examined to show how a "typical" book trailer looks and what functions it possibly has. The paper also explores the book trailer’s prospects of reaching different audiences in different age groups. It also points to difficulties in defining an audience. Young adult literature and the fantasy genre are linked to the book trailer and examples are given on how authors and publishers can establish relationships with readers through the Internet. General guidelines are given for what should be considered to appeal to as many potential readers as possible when a book trailer is being used or designed. The book trailer's ability to reach young, reluctant readers, who have given up on reading to the benefit of image based storytelling like movies and computer games, are explored. The conclusion highlights the advantages of promoting books with audio and video.

Palm, Julia. "The art of ebook cover design : An analysation of covers from Amazon kindle and a guideline to avoid the worst of them." Thesis, Tekniska Högskolan, Jönköping University, JTH, Datateknik och informatik, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-50234.

Bui, Kim-Kim. "Colours in book design : An analysis of how colours are used on book covers within the topic of health to convey the content." Thesis, Mittuniversitetet, Institutionen för design, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:miun:diva-40923.

Ho, Daniel Sze-Hin 1979. "Graphic design in Republican Shanghai : a preliminary study." Thesis, McGill University, 2005. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=98930.

Naufel, Carina da Rocha. "A capa convida : o design gráfico de Marius Lauritzen Bern para a editora Civilização Brasileira." [s.n.], 2012. http://repositorio.unicamp.br/jspui/handle/REPOSIP/284565.

Guimarães, Adriana Dolores Marques. "Design gráfico e revivalismo nas capas de livros." Master's thesis, Universidade de Lisboa. Faculdade de Arquitetura, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/13454.

Nogueira, Julio Cesar Giacomelli. "Letra e imagem : a tipografia nas capas de livros desenhadas por Eugenio Hirsch." [s.n.], 2009. http://repositorio.unicamp.br/jspui/handle/REPOSIP/284076.

Lundgren, Helena. "Omslag till böcker och DVD-filmer : en jämförande studie av visuell kommunikation i omslagen till Män som hatar kvinnor och Niceville." Thesis, Högskolan på Gotland, Institutionen för humaniora och samhällsvetenskap, 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hgo:diva-1555.

Chang, Huei-Chuen, and 張惠純. "A Study of Book Cover Design for Children's Picture Book." Thesis, 2010. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/58222771426488948197.

Jiang, Min-Huei, and 江敏慧. "A study of Literature Book-cover Design in Early Taiwan." Thesis, 2011. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/20312099639094470849.

Huang, Shihtian, and 黃釋瑱. "Study of Expressional Forms and Image on Visual Design Book Cover in Taiwan." Thesis, 2012. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/61709350395257911923.

Lin, Yung-Li, and 林勇吏. "E-book Cover Design Cognition in Creation ─ A Case Study of Science Fiction." Thesis, 2014. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/h5h5wp.

LEE, WEN-WEN, and 李玟玟. "A Study and Creation of Book-Cover Design-An Example of Tea in Taiwan." Thesis, 2016. http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/4rbq8g.

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How to design engaging book cover art

C reating a dust jacket that stands out amid a store packed full of bestselling books is a tremendous challenge, especially if it’s an older title. To compete with flashy new releases publishers will periodically redesign the jacket’s artwork.

This might be done to highlight an anniversary or build anticipation for a TV or film adaptation. Fortunately, the WondLa trilogy is celebrating both, with a TV series debuting on Apple TV+ later this year. Since I’m not just the author but the illustrator as well, I felt that this was an exciting opportunity to revisit old friends and introduce them to a new generation of young readers.

Along with the design team, I had to keep in mind the essence of the story and who the intended audience is. The first book from the trilogy, The Search for WondLa, is a middle-grade science-fiction story that has added fantasy elements. Its intended audience is 10 years old and up.

I looked at current jackets for that age range to figure out how to create a package that feels familiar while presenting something new and fresh. For me, that was designing a cover inspired by art nouveau motifs and classic Star Wars movie posters , rendered in a style akin to modern-day graphic novels. It’s also a refresh based on the first edition hardcover jacket art from 2010.

01. Draw from inspiration

To appeal to the widest audience possible, I decided on a montage design, inspired by old movie posters from my youth. I wanted the protagonist, Eva Nine, featured prominently at the top, and to also include some of the aliens, creatures and robots that are primary characters in the story. I added some of the strange vegetation as well to give a sense of the otherworldly setting.

02. Take inspiration from the masters

I wanted to anchor the characters in a central, circular design, like the composition used in illustrations from master artists such as J.C. Leyendecker, Alphonse Mucha and Norman Rockwell. A central graphic can easily be scaled to give adequate space for the titling and author’s name. At this point, I’m thinking about how to combine the separate elements – the art, titling, author, tagline and background – into one cohesive package

03. Consider a refresh

When I rendered the jacket art for the original release of The Search for WondLa back in 2010, I was at a disadvantage because it was completed before the book was illustrated; done so the publisher could pre-sell the book. At that point, I wasn’t adept at drawing the characters. However, after illustrating three novels I was much more confident updating the design.

04. Sketch old friends

I used the original composition as my starting point. If you compare the two, you can see that here the characters are pushing out from the circular border and breaking it more dynamically than the original. I also added more characters and explored the symmetry of the silhouette. This is all about fitting puzzle pieces in an exciting composition that flows around the central circle.

05. Remember the purpose

From the start, I looked at the relationship between the image and the titling. This must read as one unified package, not just an enticing piece of art. What does the buyer see first? Where do their eyes travel next? How do we get them to pick up the book to learn more? Once it’s off the shelf, you’re halfway to a book sale.

06. Use traditional inks

Although digital brushes have come a long way in the 30 years that I’ve been a professional illustrator, I like to ink traditionally. I’ve chosen different types of pens for different effects. For instance, I used old-fashioned crow quill pens when illustrating The Spiderwick Chronicles to emulate art from the 19th century. For the WondLa books, I used Staedtler Pigment Liners on a sheet of vellum laid directly over the sketch.

07. Define the elements

The ink drawing was scanned in, and I began work in Photoshop. Like a comic book artist, I flatted the colours so I’d have silhouettes of the various characters and elements. This aids the process of colouring as I can now easily select individual elements and work on them separately or in combination.

08. Create a colour palette

There are many ways to come by a harmonious palette for your digital colourisation. My preferred method is to create it from my inspiration, in this case Alphonse Mucha’s 1911 poster for the ballet Princess Hyacinth. I indexed the colour in Photoshop and saved the colour table as a palette that I imported directly into my swatches. I customised it further from there, but this is where I started.

09. Get back to the drawing board

The importance of managing your time is the opportunity to step away from your work and return with fresh eyes to see if the piece is satisfactory. Once this piece was coloured, I took the weekend off and returned only to realise that I didn’t care for the drawing of Eva. Not only that, but I felt the Mucha-inspired palette was too muted and might not appeal to a young reader.

10. Begin deeper exploration of the image

I abandoned my initial colour scheme and colourised an alternate image using a limited palette. I knew we wouldn’t print this version, but I needed to shake up my process by trying something risky and new. In doing so, a couple of aspects stood out: I loved the colour of the blue line work, and I preferred the image without all the dingy textures I’d used in the previous iteration.

11. Review the updated version

This is close to the final artwork printed on the cover of the book. It integrates aspects from my original inspiration as well as ideas gathered during my exploratory process. For me, these little discoveries – like the blue line work and redrawn Eva – are some of the most exciting experiences of creating. There’s some texture here, but it’s used sparingly and is a custom brush from True Grit Texture Supply.

12. Make your background selection

But I’m not finished. Remember, the central illustration is but one component for the entire jacket. Inspired by the dusky sunset imagery of Star Wars, I decided on a simple gradient for the background complete with

a star field and planetary rings. The central image is a separate layer so art director Lizzy Bromley could scale and nudge the art to fit the titling and text in her design.

13. Consider the finished package

Here we see the results of Lizzy’s work. If you read the cover from top to bottom, you’ll see how hard it’s working to sell you this book. From the testimonial blurb at the top, the beautiful foil-printed typography by Tom Kennedy of Letterhead Fonts, to my tagline and name, the jacket is enticing young readers to pick up this book from the shelf.

14. Make additional variant covers

This cover was one of three that work together as a whole, but we varied the design to keep each unique. For instance, I deepened the background on each subsequent jacket to reflect the increasing dark tone of the story. The chance to revisit these titles after a decade was a rare and exciting experience, and allowed me the opportunity to continue to produce the highest quality books for readers. 

This content originally appeared in ImagineFX magazine, the world's leading digital art and fantasy art magazine. ImagineFX is on sale in the UK, Europe, United States, Canada, Australia and more. Limited numbers of ImagineFX print editions are available for delivery from our  online store  (the shipping costs are included in all prices).