Making a cover design fit the book AND the author... ~by Linda Boulanger

For this blog post, once again I went to my author group to see what they might be interested in. The majority of them know me as a cover designer as well, so I wasn’t surprised when Chris asked about that. She wanted to know how I come up with my cover designs for different authors and their books, and how I mesh the story line with the book and also the author’s personality or preferences.

The basics of cover design are pretty much the same each and every time.

The process consists of:

1. Gathering information about the story

2. Searching for images that might work (often the longest part of the process)

3. Designing the cover

One thing that I feel makes me different as a designer is that I am what I consider an inspired designer… meaning I have to be inspired to create the piece, just like I do with writing or any other form of artwork. Some designers have their formula and can sit down … 1, 2, 3 … and they have their cover. It’s still work and can be just as time-consuming. I just can’t do it that way, even if I wish sometimes I could.

My process starts by gathering information about the story. I have a questionnaire that I will send an author, though oftentimes I just ask the questions via email. I like having a more informal working relationship because, to me, it’s the best way I know to really dig down and find out what the author wants to see in his or her book cover. That lack of formality also lets me get to know the author and what he/she wants. It creates a friendly atmosphere so that he/she feels comfortable telling me they don’t like something or that they love something, and when they say they love it, I know they really do and we have a cover that is headed in the right direction.

I get a lot of my inspiration from searching through images. I don’t see an image as a whole, but as bits and pieces. It’s kind of like working a puzzle… my mind is constantly taking these bits and trying them this way and that to see how they fit into the creation of a whole new image. Only each piece also has to fit with the information I have gleaned about the story. I think this is what Chris was asking about. How do I gather the information that I use to pull those tiny pieces of the puzzle out to create something that fits together, fits the story, AND fits the author?

 

The answer goes back to that initial email I send back that is filled with … QUESTIONS. Lots and lots of questions. I ask about the book’s characters: hair color and length, eye color, build… anything you can think of about a character, I want to know. I ask about the genre, and also the overall tone of the book. I also want to know if there are any particular scenes that stand out in an author’s mind that would make a reader feel connected. I ask for the blurb, and on occasion (but not often because I am super busy and not a fast reader), I will actually read the book to get a better feel for what the cover needs to convey.

I don’t usually have to read the book. Talking it out (preferably via email so that I have a written copy to look back through for details) is usually all I need and I often start to get a basic cover idea from that very first email. I’ve even conceived a couple of covers in dreams that have ended up being spot on. I love that and say it’s magic. My favorite thing is when an author tells me it’s like I could see the picture they had in their mind.

So, I guess the answer to how I get my cover designs to fit the book AND the author is that every cover I create is inspired by the information I get from each author. Talking a lot with the author, getting a feel for his/her likes and dislikes, and even their personality, or at the least, the tone of the book so that I can grab those bits and pieces of images to put back together in just the right way, is how I make the covers unique for each and every author I work with.

Next month I will continue with the part of Chris’ question where she wanted to know if I had a favorite cover and why. That, along with who is my favorite author, has to be one of the toughest questions I ever have to answer, but you can find out May 5^th, right here on Originality by Design.

Mishmash--It's a Real Process ~ by Linda Boulanger

   
Hi! I’m Linda Boulanger. Welcome to Originality by Design. As both a book cover designer and an author, I have the privilege of choosing which of those I will share with you, and I’ve chosen to take you with me into the world of cover design.

Tell~Tale Book Covers is where you’ll find me when I’m wearing my award-winning designer hat. That’s where I get to team up with bestselling authors, debut authors, and everyone in between, and in every genre. It’s an amazing job that allows me to couple my love of books and the writing world with visual creativity, while working with others to achieve their dreams.

All book covers have one job and that is to grab the attention of a potential reader. The key element for grabbing that attention is, of course, the image. That’s what design is all about, whether the image is a photograph, illustration, mishmash of different elements, or even the visually pleasing arrangement of words.

Most of the time, I use a design technique known as photo-manipulation. That basically means I use the mishmash approach, taking numerous images and manipulating them into one completely new and unique image. That also means I spend a lot of time searching for the perfect stock images on various stock sites. Finding the right images to go into the creation of a unique book cover can take as much time, if not more, than the actual final design.

Sometimes in my Facebook design group, I like to play a little game called “How Many Layers?” with certain covers I’ve designed. The image below was created using seven different images. Can you look at it and see each one? I like to think of a cover as a bit of a torn paper collage. Anyone remember making them? The dragon in the final image is a great example of this. I wanted him wrapped around my awesome couple, so I had to take him apart and rework him quite a bit. I think it was the perfect touch for this romantic cover.

The 35 Layers mentioned indicate the number of Photoshop layers it took to mishmash those images into one that I felt truly reflected the story inside. This cover is sold, but the book has not released yet – that’s why there’s no text. I did have the author’s permission to use it.

Protectors of the Realm, shown below, is a recent pre-made cover I designed. It doesn’t have a book yet (though all my Tell~Tale pre-made covers are on sale through the month of November in celebration of NaNoWriMo!). It was a fun one to mash up, and started with me stumbling across the image of the woman with the bow and arrows. I really like her, but didn’t want to use her exactly as she is. We see her image a lot in designs. I wanted to change her up a bit. I also liked the idea of putting her with someone else… and the final cover is what you get when the wheels inside a designer’s mind start turning.

Surprisingly, even though Protectors of the Realm only has 20 layers, it actually has 7 images, just like the first one (I don’t have the sword shown in the Concept Board).

Whether you’re an author, a reader, or just like artwork, I hope you’ve enjoyed this brief glimpse into one book cover design method. Next time you look at an image that’s most likely a product of photo-manipulation, think about what might have gone into creating it, and remember: originality is limited only by one’s own imagination.