Design Process

“I Need A Job” Book Cover for author, Josiah Chiappelli

In order to give people a look into how my creative design process works, I wanted to go through the creation of a book cover that I did a few years ago. And highlight every step I took to get the final product.

This project started with a message from my friend and fellow designer, Dawn Griffin. “Are you interested in doing a freelance job for a book cover for my friend? If so I’ll give him your email address.” To which I replied: “Yeah definitely!” I was then contacted by Josiah and we got to talking.

He explained to me that the plot of the book centered around a young woman that was desperately searching for a job. The tone was comedic, and the main character was creative and loved to draw. He also sent me a few examples of covers he liked, and we talked about anything he might want to include in the cover (perhaps a snail?) and anything he wanted to avoid.

Immediately after discussing his vision for the book, I started sketching…

Sketches

Image: https://assets.dunked.com/assets/prod/137596/p1e74kv3p816t31onqi5gq4e1cf33.jpg

Start with sketches, my friend. The winner was in this bunch, and it was my favorite from the start. But initially, it wasn’t chosen as one of the favorite covers.

Mock-Ups

Image: https://assets.dunked.com/assets/prod/137596/p1e74jifje1q1m1t3k1f7h1858p2h3.jpg

Then, it’s on to super-rough mock-ups. Photoshop was my friend. This is one step above sketches, but a thousand steps below the final. And it was decided that these weren’t terribly strong, but do you remember that one sketch of the girl laying distraught on the ground? Maybe we should revisit that…

Let’s Go Back

Variations on a theme. The initial sketch is still going strong.

More Mock-Ups

Mock-ups really help the client see the direction each design can go. I think in showing the covers this way, the strength of the winning design became more clear.

A Winner & Color Variations

Now that we have a winner, we want to make sure our colors are on point. That means rough sketches of the back and color variations of the overall design.