Neil Swaab's Blog, page 9

Illustration & Design Coffee Mugs

It’s snowing and freezing outside so I made some dumb illustration & design coffee mugs to warm up. Originally, they were going to be part of a larger project I’m working on, but I think they work better as a single piece.

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The Island of Excess Love

Here’s a new book cover I illustrated for Henry Holt and Company: The Island of Excess Love by Francesca Lia Block. This is the sequel to Love in the Time of Global Warming, which I also had the pleasure of illustrating.

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Holly Goldberg Sloan Book Covers for Little, Brown

Here are a couple of new covers I worked on recently for Little, Brown when I was doing that last maternity leave fill-in. Just Call My Name is a new hardcover book and I’ll Be There is a repackage of a paperback. For extra fun points, below is the original hardcover of I’ll Be There which I also designed and illustrated so you can compare. It’s fun to repackage a book you previously designed in such a completely different way.

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The Young World

Now that it’s been officially revealed, I’m thrilled to post the cover to The Young World by Chris Weitz, a book I art directed and designed for Little, Brown. The art was impeccably done by Steve Stone and my brother Adam Swaab lent his digital ninja skills to making the type look all 3D’ed and battle-worn. The Young World comes out July 2014!

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Saving Lucas Biggs

Here’s a fun cover I got to do for HarperCollins publishers for a book called Saving Lucas Biggs! It’s about time travel and murder and is told from the perspective of two different narrators. The book comes out April 2014.

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Happy Halloween!

A quick spot illustration I did a while back for a personal project.

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Secrets and Lies

One of the books I art directed and designed recently during the 3 months I filled in at Little, Brown is Secrets and Lies. Looking at the first book in the series, Truth or Dare, I loved how the art director emphasized focus on the finger and mouth. Since this was going to be a trilogy, I immediately thought about See No Evil, Speak No Evil, Hear No Evil. The titles of the books synched perfectly with the concept so everyone jumped on board when I presented it. This cover is, obviously, Hear No Evil. After some photo research and a bit of digital manipulation, the above cover is what we settled on. Secrets and Lies come out May 2014.

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A Creature of Moonlight

Here’s a new cover I illustrated a few months back for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt called A Creature in Moonlight by Rebecca Hahn! Comes out May 2014!

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Paolo Bacigalupi for Oberlin Alumni Magazine

Here’s a quick illustration I did recently of author Paolo Bacigalupi (Ship Breaker, Drowned City, Zombie Baseball Beatdown) for Oberlin Alumni Magazine!

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Leaving China

During my career as a book designer, I’ve had the pleasure of working on a number of picture books with illustrator James McMullan. I was honored and thrilled to get to work on his new autobiographical book, Leaving China, for Algonquin books. With artwork that’s so beautiful and timeless, I thought it best to just step back and let it speak for itself, so I went with a simple, clean, and classical design. You can check out more samples in my portfolio. Leaving China will be available March, 2014.

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