Building a Book Cover
Sometimes book covers include only text, or color, or an image that’s almost ready-to-go, out of the package. Sometimes it takes a bit of creativity to get what you want. When Jessica James contacted me about designing the cover for her second book, Noble Cause, I jumped at the chance. She’s a great client…easy to work with, pays promptly and wins awards for her books.
All she really told me is she didn’t want any images, but wanted the cover to look like an old leather book cover. I looked around and saw many images that might have worked, but I had a few of my own that I thought might do the trick even better.
found a Bible printed in the 1800s at a local bookstore a few years ago and scanned it. The worn, embossed design seemed perfect for Noble Cause.
After some color adjustments I thought I could use it, but under closer scrutiny, I realized the image texture appeared to be “fuzzy” (it cardboard), so I scanned a vinyl portfolio case, worked some magic to make it look more like leather in Photoshop and placed that over the scanned cover, blending the two. I liked the result.
A few hours of blending, adding layers, and fiddling with the color options and I was satisfied. Next, I added some fleurons I had used on her first book cover. I made dozens of different fleuron designs many years ago to sell on stock art sites. They are one of the most useful design elements I have.
Trying to get the gold embossed text was a little tricky. I used a graphic enhancement licensed from Alien Skin for the basic look, then played around with the color. I ended up darkening the area around the glyphs so they’d stand out more against the background. This is what we ended up with:
You can see the thumbnail image of the original book we added to the back flap to promote it. Shades of Gray, has been featured on this blog before, when it won a historical fiction award.
