Impactful Book Cover Design: An Art Director's Perspective

Impactful Book Cover Design: An Art Director's Perspectiv

“Thanks for joining this course! It’s been an incredible adventure. Hopefully, you have enjoyed this journey through the amazing world of books! I also hope you have found some bits of inspiration for your work. I have shared my work and process with you, but now it’s your turn. For your project, you will design a series of three book covers. First, choose three books by an author that you will want to design as a series Remember to read the material and take as many notes as you can. Keep separate track of purely visual items vs. bigger themes and concepts. Also, look into the author’s background story for any other relevant information. Using your notes, generate rough ideas using thumbnail sketches. These can be quick and loose! Next, focus on two or three ideas and decide how you will execute them. Start researching and gathering visuals that you can use to create your designs. If you are illustrating the cover or doing something purely typographic, gather any reference material that relates to those approaches. Combine your visual ideas with typography. Try at least three different typographic directions for each cover. Work towards having your visuals and type integrated as a cohesive unit. This is also a time to have fun and experiment with your layouts. Finally, choose your best ideas and extend your design concepts onto the spines. Then prepare your covers for the presentation.

Take this course as a chance to improve and learn. It doesn’t matter if you have a mistake or two, or three or more, just keep practicing. Most of our biggest knowledge comes from our mistakes. Let your creativity take the lead! And don’t worry if your cover is not looking too much like a traditional cover. You just might be on the right track. Don’t forget to share your project! I want to see what you have created. I will be giving you feedback as soon as I can. But be patient, it can take some time. Meanwhile, I encourage you to look at what your fellows are doing. Share with them some tips and tricks. See you soon!”

Partial transcription of the video

“ Final Project Thank you for taking this course. I hope it was as rewarding for you as it was for me to put together. Now it is time for you to start on your very own project. I'd like you to design a three-book series for an author of your choice. If you only want to design one cover, you can do that too, but the real reward will be in designing the entire set. Some things to keep in mind, do as much reading, research, and note-taking at the outset as you can. It is worth the effort and it's the key to establishing a solid design. Coming up with ideas isn't easy, but it can be fun if you ...”

This transcript is automatically generated, so it may contain mistakes.

Course summary for: Impactful Book Cover Design: An Art Director's Perspective

• Level: Beginner
• 100% positive reviews (43)
• 1913 students
• 5 units
• 14 lessons (1h 38m)
• 5 downloads

• Category

  Design

• Software

  Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop

• Areas

  Art Direction, Editorial Design, Graphic Design