How do you approach cover design?
Cover design is a balance between the practical and the artistic.
It's practical because you want to have all the information there—the author's name and the title, and you want it to be large enough to be visible, yet not so large that you can't fit it all. Whether to make the canvas bigger or the font smaller is, at any time, a judgment call
And it's artistic because you have to decide on a balance of colors, patterns and text that are congruous as a whole. Things that look good by themselves may not look good together.
At first, I thought of making it like a collage, with different scenes taken from the book. But that would have created clutter. I'm not trying to tell the story of the book on the cover. I just want to create a mood—an impression and that can be done with a few simple elements.
When you put it all together, if it doesn't work, then you have to decide can you change this or that to make it work or should you toss the whole thing and start anew.
Balance is of the essence in every aspect of cover design.
What do you read for pleasure?
I like anything with witches, dragons and goblins, spaceships, planets and robots. Through in a few pirates and time traveling and you got me.
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