Guest Post on Book Cover Design by Mahwish Javed
This is a really interesting guest post on designing a book cover. Thank you to Graphic DesignerMahwish Javedfor sending it in.
Love at First SightTips and tricks for a breathtaking book coverDon’t Judge a book by its cover! How often have you heard this advice? All lifelong! Yes that’s true! When dealing with people this is the best advice that can be given. But in case of book covers reverse is mostly true. It takes only one glance and in a second either the book is sold or it will waste away at a back corner of the bookstore. So the question is how to make your client fall in love with your book at first sight? What are the super secrets that the top designers won’t share with you? How to determine what is proper and what is not?Here are some super simple tips to keep in mind while designing your book cover!Develop the IdeaYes! A book cover is not simply a combination of picture, fonts, title and colors. In order to have an eye catching book cover you have to work on the idea development. This is the basic step in book cover design. Do it right and you will have no problem in getting your book sold.How to develop an idea? Its super simple take the theme/main idea of you book. What is it about? Now take a note book and write down any thing you can think of that relates to your main idea. For example if your book is about a journey you could have following things on your brainstorming list:RoadRail trackAirplaneExhaustingHustleJoyVacationAnd the list goes on...Select and improve the IdeaThe next step would be to improve the idea. Pick one of the list and think of things and images that will relate to them. For example if I choose exhaustion from the list the first image that will come to my mind is of a tired mom. But we won’t stop at the first image, we will dig deeper. Other things that come to mind are someone sleeping, sweat, mess, blistered feet etc. Choose what will best describe the content of your book.Image selection/IllustrationWhile choosing the image or making the Illustration you should always keep the mood of the book in mind. Mood not genre. There is a difference! A genre may be romance but a romance can be hot and steamy or soft and cuddly. You are going to showcase the best parts of your writing to attract your customers.Fonts, Title, ColorsAnd at last choose the fonts and colors that reflect the mood of your book. Brush up on color theory to choose the appropriate colors.It’s like this - the mood of the book determines the image while the image determines the font title and colors of the cover. A good designer can always justify the placement of every single thing in his/her design. If they cannot do it the design will have a very short life and will go out of trend very quickly. I have often seen designers picking up the first font that comes in front of them and using it without giving heed to whether the font goes with the theme or not. Every little thing matters!So the next time you go out to get your cover design, keep these tips in mind and you will have perfect sales! Have any more questions? I am here to answer do not hesitate!
Love at First SightTips and tricks for a breathtaking book coverDon’t Judge a book by its cover! How often have you heard this advice? All lifelong! Yes that’s true! When dealing with people this is the best advice that can be given. But in case of book covers reverse is mostly true. It takes only one glance and in a second either the book is sold or it will waste away at a back corner of the bookstore. So the question is how to make your client fall in love with your book at first sight? What are the super secrets that the top designers won’t share with you? How to determine what is proper and what is not?Here are some super simple tips to keep in mind while designing your book cover!Develop the IdeaYes! A book cover is not simply a combination of picture, fonts, title and colors. In order to have an eye catching book cover you have to work on the idea development. This is the basic step in book cover design. Do it right and you will have no problem in getting your book sold.How to develop an idea? Its super simple take the theme/main idea of you book. What is it about? Now take a note book and write down any thing you can think of that relates to your main idea. For example if your book is about a journey you could have following things on your brainstorming list:RoadRail trackAirplaneExhaustingHustleJoyVacationAnd the list goes on...Select and improve the IdeaThe next step would be to improve the idea. Pick one of the list and think of things and images that will relate to them. For example if I choose exhaustion from the list the first image that will come to my mind is of a tired mom. But we won’t stop at the first image, we will dig deeper. Other things that come to mind are someone sleeping, sweat, mess, blistered feet etc. Choose what will best describe the content of your book.Image selection/IllustrationWhile choosing the image or making the Illustration you should always keep the mood of the book in mind. Mood not genre. There is a difference! A genre may be romance but a romance can be hot and steamy or soft and cuddly. You are going to showcase the best parts of your writing to attract your customers.Fonts, Title, ColorsAnd at last choose the fonts and colors that reflect the mood of your book. Brush up on color theory to choose the appropriate colors.It’s like this - the mood of the book determines the image while the image determines the font title and colors of the cover. A good designer can always justify the placement of every single thing in his/her design. If they cannot do it the design will have a very short life and will go out of trend very quickly. I have often seen designers picking up the first font that comes in front of them and using it without giving heed to whether the font goes with the theme or not. Every little thing matters!So the next time you go out to get your cover design, keep these tips in mind and you will have perfect sales! Have any more questions? I am here to answer do not hesitate!
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