While I always love the cover design process for dgp--the scouting out ideas, collaboarating with the author-- one of my favorite things is designing something from scratch. Usually, the author will send me inspo images, or choose past covers that they like as guides. Or, in some case, simply give me some suggestions of what they'd like to see. I will come up with a design, then we tweak it to get closer to a finished concept.
The ones above went through a few iterations. For Anagnorisis, the author had sent me some samples of street stencil art and a pinterest board of ideas. This was actually the second thing I wound up mocking up--the first similar, but a different perspective of the girl and a whole other color scheme--a dark green and white. Eventually we got to this. The circle behind her was initially a formless blob and a friend of Effie's suggested the change. Both of us liked how the circle evokes the moon.
For the second book, the author sent a suggestion of vintage compasses. and I wound up creating a more modern, simple graphic version that wasn't working for her I found this more antique compass, added the collage elements (kraft paper, an old ledger segment) and it was better. Finally, we simplified what was going on by making the color more unified.)
Both books turned out beautifully and I'm loving the pastels.I tend toward that blue a lot, it's among my favorite shades. The pink is super delicate & girly (and reminds me of my childhood bedroom at a certain ag), but the black/white image makes it a little edgier & modern as a whole.
