Client:

Rod Lee, Author

Project:

Book Cover Design

Every once in a while a really interesting project pops up out of the blue. This was absolutely one of those projects.

One of my existing clients has a friend named Rod Lee who was in the process of self-publishing a novel. When Rod mentioned that he needed someone to design a cover for his book – something that would look professional and lend his novel some credibility – my client sent him my way.

Rod gave me a call and we chatted for a while. After he told me about his novel and outlined his goals for the cover he asked if I would be willing to take on the project. I’ll be honest, it didn’t take much convincing on my part. As an avid reader I was beyond excited to tackle a book cover design.

Rod’s story takes place in the 1960’s. It also involves a feud between the owner of a stuffy country club and the eccentric owner of a neighboring driving range, with the fate of a would-be amusement park hanging in the balance. My mission was set… put all those elements in a blender and mix ‘em all together.

Where to start? Well, on a project like this the fonts can make all the difference. Before I began any actual design work I researched and collected all the fonts I could find with a 60’s vibe. That era had some cool typography so the options were almost endless. From there I put together several different color palettes that were reminiscent of the time. Once I had my fonts and colors set, I began working on some initial illustrations.

I went through several different iterations before I finally landed on the four concepts that you see in the second photo. Rod liked them all, but we eventually decided to take various elements from multiple concepts and combine them into the final design that you see in the first photo. I am proud of the way this one turned out and I would welcome a chance to work with Rod on another book cover someday.

Sidebar… one of the challenges on this project was something most people don’t think about: the thickness of the book spine. Different papers have different levels of thickness. It may be miniscule, but when you start adding up hundreds of pages those tiny measurements start to matter. The design needed to line up correctly with the spine, so I worked with Rod to dial in his final page count. Then we contacted the printing house to discuss paper choice. Once we had those details set we were able to calculate the book’s final thickness, and I was able to tweak the artwork accordingly. It might be a small thing, but when the small things are off everything looks off. At the end of the day I channeled my inner Dad (measure twice, cut once) and we knocked it out of the park.