Live: Breaking into Cover Design as an Illustrator (Part 2)

Below is the transcript from our live webinar on Breaking into Cover Design as an Illustrator (Part 2), held on October 1st, 2024 with guest speaker Tim Byrne. The talk discussed the technical aspects of the transition into cover design. 

This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

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How to transition from an illustrator to a cover designer? 

There are three main areas that illustrators need to focus on to make a successful transition into cover design:

• You have to have the right mindset and approach. 
• You need to be able to make some good design decisions. 
• And then it's taking those steps a little bit further. 

Mindset and Approach

If you look at the covers below, you will see a lot of variety in them.

To effectively design a book, it's crucial to determine where your illustration style fits within the various genres and subgenres (e.g., fantasy romance). Identifying which specific genres your strengths are in is key to creating a cohesive and impactful cover design.

Navigating genres and subgenres

Each genre has a specific look. Thrillers have a person’s silhouette, the typography is clean and big. Fantasy can be a bit more ornate and the type can be fancy. Then for the historical genre, you need to be able to place the cover in the appropriate time period.  

Book covers not only fall into genres but also subgenres. For example, the first cover above represents a legal thriller, often featuring imagery like courtrooms, institutional buildings symbolized by Greek columns, or figures moving dynamically near legal establishments. These elements create a sense of tension and mystery within the context of the law.

The second cover exemplifies the "dark academia" subgenre of fantasy, characterized by settings like universities or schools and often featuring bookish references. These covers have a gothic yet beautiful aesthetic, frequently utilizing elements like gold foil and a black and gold color scheme.

The final cover falls into the historical action-adventure subgenre. It effectively conveys the book's period setting while visually communicating the action-adventure theme through elements like smoke, flames, and a battle scene. This imagery helps distinguish it from other genres like thrillers or crime.

Each genre has its own visual cues on book covers. To create a successful cover, you need to understand these cues and how to make your cover both fit within the genre and stand out from the competition. Having the mindset and approach to always analyze the genres and their visual language is a crucial step in the design process.

Design Decisions

To make covers stand out and fit in at the same time, you need to be able to make some important design decisions. The best way to do that is to break these design decisions down into three areas:

• Layout
• Typography
• Technical

Below is a cover I've done recently for Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid. I’ll be using that as an example to discuss these three areas.

First I'm going to talk about content layout.

1. Layout

Authors often want to include every detail or a big scene on their book cover. However, it's crucial to prioritize the book's core message and communicate that effectively through the design. If you can summarize the book's essence in one image, or a couple of images, or an image with a motif, then that can be more visually impactful than portraying a whole scene.  

Type Hierarchy

The typography and its hierarchy are also crucial in cover design. This refers to the visual importance and order of the text elements, determining which ones stand out and in what order they are read.

Covers typically feature the title, the author's name, a tagline, and maybe some quotes. While the title is usually most important, big-name authors may have their name appear larger instead. 

I start my cover design with the typography. I begin in black and white, laying out the type to establish a visual hierarchy. I ensure the title has the most impact, followed by the author's name and then the subtitle.

The sooner you get any quotes from the author that they want to use on the cover, the better, as you can then incorporate them into your design early on in the process. Once the typography is set, you'll know how much space is available for other imagery.

Focus

The next thing I want to discuss is the focus. Book covers are small, so a focal point is key: something that draws the viewer in. On Lady Macbeth’s cover, the focus is the throne. It's crucial to tie the focus to the content. Since Lady Macbeth is a story about the power behind the throne, this serves as a clear and central focal point.

Scale

The fourth thing I want to talk about is scale. Playing with scale on a cover is really helpful. On this cover the face is big, the throne is small, and we've got the smaller figures fighting in the background. This helps create a sense of depth and hints at the importance of the different characters to the story. 

Contrast

Another key element is using contrast to your advantage to draw attention. Here, the contrast of red against black is striking. I specifically wanted the red to stand out because it represents blood and creates a sense of mystery: 'why is there blood on the hair?'

Space 

Space is often overlooked and, in this case, there's negative space on the cover. It helps create a sense of balance in the cover and lets the other elements breathe. It gives all the elements a little bit of room to exist alongside each other. 

Decoration

Finally, consider decoration. When done well, it adds intrigue but it should always be rooted in the book's content. Here, I used Norman Romanesque arches to establish the time period. This is a historical retelling of Macbeth, set in the 11th century, so I researched designs from that era and found these, which inspired the cover's decorations. It's essential to make design decisions with intention, drawing inspiration from the book itself.

Other areas (Spine & Back)

Another design decision we make concerns the spine and back of the book. It's an important part of the book, though the front cover is undoubtedly the most prominent. With the rise of ebooks and online retailers like Amazon, we primarily see the front cover online.

But if a book is going to press, the entire cover matters. A visually interesting spine is important, and breaking up the text with a small motif adds appeal when spines are displayed on a shelf. And tying the back cover to the front makes the whole design come together.

When creating an illustration, decide if it's solely for the front cover or a wraparound. Here, I chose a wraparound to showcase the crumbling house on the cliff more effectively. You only see the full effect when you hold the book and turn it, adding another layer to the cover. But remember to leave space on the back for the blurb! That's why there's a blank area in the clouds: for the copy.

Series Covers

Another thing to think about with book covers is considering them as part of a series. 

When you're designing a series, it's important to think about how books are going to work together, so that they're not just sitting on their own; they're sitting as part of a series. How do you recognize that this book is part of a series, and how do you differentiate each book from each other?

Very often the way of doing that is through color. You can also do that through the content of your cover image. 

In the case of Fonda Lee’s Green Bone Saga, the books span 30 years. So, in the background, you can see a cityscape being slowly developed, getting more built up as the book series progresses. Also, the books start earlier in the century and then end up in the 80s. In the first one you've got knives, the second one swords, and the last one guns. So it's just a way of differentiating covers across the series.

Get more inspiration for your next book design projects

• 60+ Eye-Catching Book Cover Ideas to Get You Inspired — Blog post

• Reedsy Book Cover Art — Gallery

2. Typography

We’ve touched on it already, but typography is crucial for book covers. It's key to establishing the genre and tone of the book. Think about type personality and what it adds to the cover.

Type personality

Here are two different covers: 

The cover for Black Snow Falling — a young adult fantasy set in the Elizabethan period — features a type that evokes the era with a creepy touch, reflecting the story of stolen children's dreams.  Here, you have to consider the balance between typography and the background image. The busy background works around the type, which remains the focus, especially with the recessive foil effect. Determining what the type should convey is key to an effective cover.

The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchanan is another famous period adventure book, set at the turn of the century. For the cover, I used a period-appropriate type to convey the setting of a historical adventure novel. I was trying to echo some of the adventure books of the actual period like the Boy's Own adventure books.

Number of fonts

It's really important as well to think about the number of fonts that you use. Generally speaking, when you're putting a cover together, you should stick to two font families at the most. You don't want a cover to have too many fonts because they can start detracting from each other. 

Texture

You can also modify the font to convey your message. For The Forgotten Highlander, I used textures to create a slightly grungy look, reflecting the book's setting. It was a nonfiction account of a man's wartime experiences. So the battle-worn look is what I was going for with that choice of font and treatment of the texture. The colors also create a strong contrast: the red is suggestive of blood against the camouflage green background.

For The Serial Killer Files cover, on the other hand, I aimed for a classic murder board aesthetic, inspired by shows like CSI. The type mimics that style, playing with photocopied and highlighted elements to evoke the image of a murder board in a police station, used to track a serial killer.

Depth

Another aspect of typography is how it interacts with the background image to create depth. Here, the cover on the left uses 3D type. 

It's also important to integrate the type with the background. I often incorporate background elements into the typography to make it cohesive. In The Kiss of the Nightingale example, bits of ribbon intertwine with the lettering, imagery overlaps, and the typography itself has a 3D effect to bring it forward. This creates a sense of depth, and tying it in with the background harmonizes the overall design.

On the right, The Education of Malice cover features menacing buds intertwined with the type, adding interest and visual harmony. This integrates the type with the background instead of simply layering it on top. I also manipulated the type, drawing out flourishes like on the 'A' in “Malice.” 

You can explore font manipulation, even drawing your own (as I did for Black Snow Falling). But if that's too involved, simply tweaking existing fonts that you can find online can significantly change their appearance.

Perspective

Fonts are also an excellent tool to draw the viewer's eye down the cover. You can see that with these three covers which are all very perspective-based. They're all focusing on trying to lead your eye either up, down, or across the cover, and playing with depth here and tying that into in a big way to the illustration as well. 

Typography is a great area to play around with and you can do a lot with it in cover design 

3. Technical Details

So what are the things we need to know when we're thinking about a cover? 

Dimensions

This is the layout of a book cover. You've got your front, your back, and your spine.

This is the layout you need to consider after finalizing your design and assembling all the elements. Traditionally, you'd use a design layout program like InDesign, the current industry standard.

So, you'd design a cover based on this layout. This is for a 5x8 inch cover, the most common dimension for fiction paperbacks on Amazon, and quite close to the traditional paperback size in the UK.

Bleed margins

The key thing here is to include bleed margins. You have your trimmed page size, which is the final size of the book jacket (the white area): the size your book will be after printing and trimming. The spine is the central band in the middle (the black lines). The margins are your safe area; keep all your important design elements within that space and avoid placing type too close to the edge.

Allowing for some bleed margins is crucial as it protects you against potential misalignment and mistakes during the printing and production phase. When using images, drop them into the design template, ensuring they extend beyond the trim lines by about 3 millimeters. This accounts for the bleed, which is trimmed off after printing. This you need to know, and you need to work with.

Setting up a document in InDesign

If you're setting up in InDesign, this is the dialog box you get.

To create a 5x8 inch cover for your document, enter these dimensions into the dialogue box. You can use inches or millimeters.

I typically set the margins at 7 millimeters from the edge. You could reduce them to 6 or 5 millimeters, but I wouldn't recommend going any smaller.

In the dialog box, set the bleed to 3 millimeters on all sides.  Add two columns and use the column gutter to define the spine width. I set mine to 20 millimeters, but you'll need to determine the correct size for your cover based on how many pages the book will be. The top of the InDesign document displays the total width, which includes the front, spine, and back cover.

Top tip: remember, if you’re designing a cover jacket for a hardback, you’ll need to add a few more millimeters to allow for the hardcover.

I’ve gone into depth here to make it easier for you to get started, as this was something I struggled with while making the transition to cover designer. I suggest you refer back to this when working and read up on it more.

Setting up a document in Photoshop

In Photoshop, it's slightly different. Photoshop doesn't give you the option to add bleeds,  so you have to add them in manually. This is what you get if you get a new Photoshop document setup.  And this is just for the front panel. 

To calculate the front cover dimensions, you need to add 3 millimeters on each side and 3 millimeters on the top and bottom. This adds an extra 6 millimeters to the height. 

Resolution

Speaking of this dialog box, it's crucial to remember another important factor: resolution.

The standard resolution for print is 300 dpi, which ensures a sharp image. I wouldn't recommend using anything lower. For ebook covers, you can use a lower resolution, such as 150 dpi or even less. 

Color mode

This dialog box also includes a section for selecting your color mode.

You can also find the color mode options in the Image menu under the Mode dropdown. These are important for your project. There are two main color modes: CMYK and RGB. CMYK, which stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black, is used for printing. These are the inks used to print a physical cover.

If you're designing a cover specifically for an ebook, you should choose RGB. RGB stands for red, green, and blue, which are the colors used to create images on a screen. So, anything that's screen-based, like websites, mobile devices, iPads, etc., uses RGB. 

When designing your cover, it's best to work in CMYK. This is considered best practice because you can easily convert a CMYK cover to RGB and maintain its appearance. However, if you design in RGB and then convert to CMYK, the colors often appear flat and desaturated. This is because RGB has a wider range of colors, and some of those colors may not translate well to CMYK. So, stick to CMYK for the design process and then convert it to RGB if needed.

Exporting the final file

The last step is exporting your finished cover as a PDF from InDesign. When you're ready to send your cover to the printer, you'll need to save it as a PDF. You'll have two presets: PDF/X-1a:2001 and PDF/X-1a:2008. 

I usually choose PDF/X-1a:2001. It's a reliable option. I believe the 2008 preset is better suited for files with transparencies. However, I've been using the 2001 version for 20 years without any issues, so I recommend it.

And that is everything you need to know from a technical side to set up your cover.  

Next Steps

So, you've looked at all of these design decisions. You've looked at them, you now have a sense of what the technical side is for producing covers. What next? 

Judge

The first thing I recommend is to "judge" book covers. Visit bookstores and browse online, and do what people often claim they don't do: judge books by their covers! Explore a wide range of covers and images, and familiarize yourself with different genres. It's crucial to understand the market, identify where your illustrations fit, and recognize the types of covers they would complement.

Reflect

Next, I encourage you to reflect on your own illustrations and compare them to the styles you observed in the bookstore. Consider the genres you encountered and analyze your own work. Ask yourself:

• How can I adapt my illustrations to suit different genres?
• Which genres are most compatible with my current style?
• Can I modify my illustrations to fit into a wider range of genres?

By exploring these questions, you can expand your artistic versatility and increase your opportunities to work across various genres.

Expand

Expand your skill set by learning new programs like InDesign and exploring unfamiliar features in Photoshop. Different illustration styles require different tools; traditional illustration might use Photoshop or Procreate, while photo manipulation demands a separate skill set. Diversify your abilities by mastering these various tools and techniques.

If you're new to lettering, experiment with manipulating letters in Photoshop or Illustrator. Try drawing your own, and if it doesn't look perfect, utilize the vast array of fonts available online, like on MyFonts or Adobe Fonts, to find the perfect style for your design.

Design

Ultimately, designing covers is the best way to experience the role of a cover designer. Experiment by incorporating your illustrations into cover designs and observe how they function within the overall composition. I recommend setting yourself the task of designing several covers over a period of time. Don't focus on earning money from your initial designs because that can inhibit your creativity.

Play around and have fun with the design process! Examine a variety of book covers, including those with designs you find less appealing, and even redesign covers for books you're familiar with. It's a rewarding exercise to design the covers for books you love. 

Q&A Session

Martin: When you're working with a high-profile author whose name has significant brand recognition and often appears larger on the cover, is that a decision communicated to you by the design team, or is it something that everyone generally understands?

Tim: Well, it is something you get to know over time. It is normally mentioned in the brief from publishers. They will normally say “make sure the author's name is pretty big.”

Martin: Do you run test prints to check the colors and contrast before sending covers off to the clients? Or is that something you have a pretty good sense for by this point?

Tim: Not anymore. I used to try printing things out. There's such a lot of variety now between printers that you have at home and printers that a cover might go to. I think the best way is to buy books that will give you an idea of how colors look when they're printed. I have a print book that breaks down all the values of CMYK into tables. I sometimes check those colors. And also it's a question of setting up your screen colors. Most screens are pretty good nowadays. It's not something that we can really have huge amounts of control over. 

Martin: Is there a trick to calculating the width of a spine?

Tim: It would be down to the author. Or, in the case of publishers, that's something that they will work out and give me. 

Martin: What do you think about AI? Do you think that AI will replace the job of a cover book designer? Or will it just be a possible choice? 

Tim: Never, never. AI will never replace a cover designer. It's an interesting area. I think ultimately, it will be a choice. AI can do some amazing stuff at the moment from what I've seen of it. But the human element to that is really important. And I think that, keeping that going is definitely something to strive with.  

Martin: Do you read the manuscript before designing the cover?

Tim: It is really important to have a look at the manuscript. So I genuinely ask the author to send me a PDF of their manuscript because I will try to read it. If I can't read the whole thing, I certainly will skim through it and look through passages.

I find that helpful because very often you can come across a passage or an image, and you just get a sense of the book. There have been occasions where if I hadn't read the book, I just wouldn't have used a certain image that ended up working well for the cover. So I think it's really important to do that. I know not everyone does, but it's something I like to do.

Martin: How long do you need for the process of creating one cover? 

Tim: It really depends entirely on the cover and depends on the approach you're taking to that cover. Is it a photographic approach? Is it an illustrative approach? Some of the photographic approaches where you're cutting out images and manipulating them together can be quite fast. It's a really hard question to answer for that reason. It really varies.  

Martin: How do you decide your visual approach between illustration or working with photography?

Tim: This comes down to genre conventions. But you can deviate from them. I take each cover as it comes and think, “what is going to be the right approach here?”

Historical fiction covers often feature photographic elements. However, you could explore alternative approaches like patterns, motifs, or a single, small image. You could use a photographic figure, textured imagery, or even create an illustration. The key is to consider the book's target market and its tone. A more literary work might call for a different design than a mass-market title. These factors will inform your design choices.

Martin: What is the revision process and the process of presenting the design to your client? What sort of feedback do you find is important? 

Tim: I like to have a lot of contact with the clients and just keep up a regular dialogue so we're both clear about what's involved.

From the start, I want to clearly understand their expectations for the cover design, its purpose, and any initial ideas they have. After gathering this information, I develop some rough sketches and present those to the client or author for feedback.

Hopefully, they'll provide feedback, and we'll discuss how well the design meets their expectations, what they like or dislike, and any necessary revisions. The next step would be either to proceed with the design or make adjustments to align with their vision.

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