Book cover design is something I've always wanted to try, and I decided July '23 to use it to experiment with different design techniques. So, I set mini challenges for myself and created covers based on songs/artists that I love. I re-imagine these songs as books, deciding their genre and overall aesthetic from the lyrics and tunes. I hope you enjoy seeing these songs come to life as much as I enjoy bringing them to life!
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Have a song you'd like to see as a book cover? Contact me and I'll consider it!
Challenge:
For Vance Joy's Don't Fade, I wanted to create something colorful. I challenged myself to use Photoshop with an emphasis on using some of the effects (for example, the dissolving texture on this cover).
I see Don't Fade as a YA suspense novel that probably reads a lot like John Green's Paper Towns.
I'm particularly proud of the colorful but mysterious quality I was able to achieve. I think this appeals to the target YA audience and makes sense with the genre at the same time.
Challenge:
Take a whirl around this site, and you may notice that most of my work is bright, colorful, and loud. My challenge for The Scientist was to create something dark and tense. I wanted to use Photoshop, and I wanted to get outside my comfort zone.
Coldplay's The Scientist is a slow, methodical song, and I wanted this cover to convey that through dark colors and by using a photo that feels intimate and a little uncomfortable.
I imagine this song as a Historical Psychological Thriller. The female protagonist is absolutely a genius and a scientist. The villain in this book? It's probably the patriarchy, revealed through slow hints and long descriptions of the subtly uncomfortable ways men look at our heroine.
Challenge:
In an incredible 180 from the previous cover, the Swiftie in me wanted to create a cliche RomCom book cover in the modern design style of books by Ali Hazelwood, Sophie Kinsella, or Katharine McGee.
Both Taylor's Foolish One and the lesser-known Elizabeth Gerardi's Colder than Winter, are such vivid and relatable songs. I wanted each cover to pop with a dominant color while maintaining that characteristic design style many RomComs use today.
I imagine these books as short beach reads or holiday comfort reads. The protagonist in each book is funny, relatable, and loud. Her only flaw? She's never met a table she hasn't stubbed her toe on. So clumsy. Clearly, she's not like other girls. That said, she tackles her problems with heart, comedy, and a little bit of romance.
Challenge:
The challenge I created for myself on this cover was to design a cover quickly. I gave myself 30 minutes, picked Ed Sheeran's Boat, and got to work.
I recently saw a cover that used an image within words to convey feeling trapped or watched. I loved this idea and decided to try it on Boat. I also loved the simplicity of the title and wanted to use that to my advantage.
I imagine this book as something similar to Where the Crawdads Sing. The setting is somewhere humid and eerie. The book is told in 3rd-person POV and when Hollywood produces it as a blockbuster film adaptation, your bookclub will attend.