Book Covers
Some of my favorite work I've done so far has been designing book covers. I've had the chance to work on both fiction and non fiction designs, and both can be an exciting challenge. Here are a few of the covers I've had the opportunity to create.
The Millenium Series
The Millenium Series, by Swedish author Stieg Larsson, was a challenging, but really exciting series to design book covers for. This was my first time designing a series instead of one book cover, so initially it felt daunting to create a concept that could be carried throughout multiple designs. However, I found that it pushed my creativity to think beyond imagery and focus on concept. I ended up designing covers that all connect into one image, but each cover is also specific to the theme of that particular book.
The Process
To create the art on the covers, I first sketched out how I wanted all of the pieces to connect, and then drew it in procreate. I wanted the illustration to have depth and an organic feeling, however, so I finished by using a stipple brush to create more lightly shaded areas. This gave the the illustration the depth I envisioned.
The Ungrateful Refugee
The Ungrateful Refugee, by Dina Nayeri, explores assylum and immigration from the perspective of those who have experienced the process, including herself. The book tackles the heavy impact immigration has on identity, and I chose to use a butterfly on the cover as a symbol of personhood. The broken, pieced together butterfly references the way Nayeri describes the immigration experience. The butterfly possesses beauty and vibrance, yet it is simultaneously shattered and put back together, with the expectations of society permanently inked into its very body, with words that say "happy, blessed, grateful..." the words immigrants and asylum seekers are expected to identify with.
The Country of The Blind
"A witty, winning, and revelatory personal narrative of the author’s transition from sightedness to blindness and his quest to learn about blindness as a rich culture all its own"
When we think about blindness, the first thing that comes to mind is: darkness. However, when I set out to create this book cover, I wanted to design something that captured Leland's message. Leland talks a lot about the complexity of entering a world of blindness. In many aspects, he views blindness as a disability. However, in some sense, he sees it as an opportunity to develop his other four senses in ways that would be otherwise impossible. In this design, I attempted to capture the chaotic nature of Leland's journey from sightnedness to blindness, and the all of the complex feelings that come with it.