Weekend Artspiration: My Book Cover Design Process

I was blessed to have the opportunity to design the book cover for first-time author, Reynold J. Levocz. The novel is entitled: "The Spear of Longinus", and takes place during the time of Christ. It follows the man who speared Jesus on the Cross and his burden. The story is based on an event from the Bible, but goes on to tell the story of a character's life, struggles, love, and adventures. Here is the cover I designed, and the process I took.

Step 1: Research & Inspiration

I spent a lot of time walking through book stores and libraries, just taking notes and pictures of books that caught my eye. I reserached the currently most successful books, and books of the historical fiction/religious fiction genres. Every book has it's own style, but I found a few of my favorites and took notes on their similar qualities. I kept a note of these points as my inspiration.

Strong focal point (light source)
Focal point of a face/eyes
Layers/textures
Warm-tone

Step 2: Sketches

I drew many sketches to filter my ideas, and organize my thoughts. I exhausted my ideas on paper first, to eliminate wasting too much time in the next step: creating the designs. A lot of my sketches were never implemented, and I only showed my client the finished designs so I wasn't really concerned about getting my point across to anyone else but myself.

Step 3: Design

I initially designed the following covers. My designs were based on the synopsis, the character development, and the author's note of including Tiberius (Main character) Helena (love interest) and the spear.

After meeting with the author and going over the designs, I had a much better understanding of the author's wants and interested style. From there, I was able to create more designs.

All of these cover designs were considered for the final print. The cover that was chosen was then tweaked in several ways. The woman was changed, the title was altered, the spear was given a blood stain, and the tagline: "A historical saga of love and courage" was changed to "A historical saga of courage and love" to match the left/right graphic of the cover.

I really had a great time working on this project. Reynold J. Levocz has already asked me to design the cover of his second book: Constantine the Great. It should be released in 2015.