I love designing book covers, so I thought I'd share some images of a process using photo manipulation for cover artwork.

This lovely cover was designed for J. J. R. Lay's Creating Stanley, published by Black Eyes Publishing UK. The book had been published previously with a different cover, so this was a rebranding project to add a professional design to the re-edited content.

Starting with a mobile photo of Gloucester Cathedral and a few buildings in the foreground, I created the wider image below so that it could flow into the back cover.

The main task was to convert the photograph into an illustrated image, making the scene into a rainy nighttime one and making the cathedral much darker to mimic how it would look at night. Also, to allow the lettering on the cover to stand out sufficiently. This effect was achieved by creating four layers to separate elements: the sky, cathedral spire and two layers for the other buildings. Then using a number of filters and some hand-painted work where necessary.

Another important element was creating a lit window with a glow, which was something that the client stressed was essential to the story.

On the full-covers layout above, you’ll see that I coloured the text by taking a colour sample from the brickwork and one that stood out effectively over the background section of the cathedral. The spine and back cover sections needed a black shaded overlay to help the blurb to stand out.

I loved working on this cover design project for the challenge of transforming a photo into something so different. I love to illustrate too, but this post shows what can be achieved by manipulating a photo.

You can buy a copy of the book from Black Eyes directly or from Amazon.

#bookcoverdesign #bookcoverart #bookdesign #bookdesigner #rebranding

Article by Jason Conway, a multi-award-winning creative designer, photographer, artist and writer based in Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK. Find out more about him and his creativity at www.thedaydreamacademy.com.