Tim Hawken

The Evolution of a Cover

They say you can’t judge a book by it’s cover. This may be true philosophically speaking, but in today’s world of slick marketing, short attention spans, and digital media, a well designed cover is often as important as the contents in terms of sales.

How often have you walked past a shelf and reached out to something that has caught your eye visually? Do you click on weblinks because of the words, or the pictures that accompany them? Emotionally, people are attracted by pretty or interesting things.

Colour pallets, graphics, topography, layout and even title placement can all have a profound impact on how well a book sells.

So what kind of work goes into the process of producing cover art? And does the author have much of a say?

I’m sure this is different for everyone, but personally I’ve been lucky enough to work with a publisher who is very collaborative in this sense. Joe Gregory from Dangerous Little Books (DLB) came up with a great first round design for Hellbound (above), based off some sourcing templates I sent through. It was quite easy, but essentially all the creative came from his end.

For the pending release of Hellbound in hardcover, DLB came to me and said they wanted to do something special. Rather than replicate the original artwork, they wanted to approach a fine artist to collaborate with. I was very excited at the prospect. I’m a big art fan, despite having zero drawing skills whatsoever. In the end, we settled on an incredibly talented up-and-coming artist called Christopher Page. DLB connected Chris and I via email, and I had the privilege of going back and forth with him to create something new.

Below is a behind the scenes snapshot of how Chris went about evolving something original:

Round 1: I sent through a few images to Chris of pieces of art I liked for different reasons:
White Rose, by Gustave Dore, because I love etchings, The Omnipotent by William Blake, a classic piece I’ve always liked, and a few Ben Templesmith pieces, because I really dig the colour pallets he uses.

From here Chris and I got together on Skype and had a chat about what we wanted to do. We both thought an urban setting would suit well, since it reflected Hell in the book, and that the main characters of Satan and Michael would be walking through. After a week of sketching. Chris sent through some initial mock-ups. I’ve also included some rough sketches he sent me in terms of composition to illustrate how he sets up the spacial look of his sketches.

Comments from Chris: “Here is a sketch of the kind of thing that has been running through my mind for the cover of Hellbound. Bear in mind this is just a sketch. Let me know you’re thoughts on going down this kind of route. The ‘camera’ could change angle – be more birdseye for example. I think the font of Hellbound should certainly change. What do you think about it being a sign? The two characters are not worked out yet as you can see – i have been thinking mainly about the scene. The composition is not right either – should be more space above the title and below the feet of the characters.”

Tim’s response: I like the idea of the composition and the colours are great! I think the camera angel is fine. As you say I think the font needs to change and would prefer it to be laid over the artwork rather than part of it. Buildings looking good, would be great to see some older style ones in there also, like a modern take on the gothic style with gargoyles and or dark spires. Some new, some old if you get my drift. Characters need some work as you say but all looking sweet as a concept.

Round 2:

Tim’s feedback: I think it definitely coming along well. The buildings are looking much more menacing, and I think the colour is great. I would like to see the characters a little more dynamic. I think looking up and to the side, maybe with Satan pointing. I think Satan needs to look more menacing also. The city/sky look a little lifeless in terms that there isn’t any kind of movement. The city appears deserted. Maybe an addition of a silhouette of a helicopter, or bat, or lightening in the sky. Maybe a light shining from a building with a figure standing in the window.

Round 3:

This was the final approved art, which Chris came up with. Sketches on either side are combined and then colour is added in.

After this, the final step was for the DLB to place the fonts onto the artwork. This can sometimes be a little heartbreaking, especially for the artist. However, it would be commercial suicide out a book with no name and no author. After a few back and forth’s we finally settled on the below.

This is the final approved design that is just about to be released.

A huge thanks to Christopher Page for being so professional and easy to work with and to Dangerous Little Books for allowing us to work together. To check out more of Chris’s work, please visit his website.