#ya book jacket

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Challenge 135: YA Book Jacket: Escape

LOOOooved this theme and how tight/ realistic of a prompt Caitlin made it.

For my idea I wanted to depict our 4 main characters on the verge of sneaking out of their private school and into the world they know very little about.

Elizabeth B.

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Challenge 135: YA Book Jacket: The Disappearance

This was a fun one for me! I’ve always wanted to work on a hypothetical book cover, so this was a welcome challenge. I chose to focus on the mysterious elements of the plot (at least I imagined it to be quite mysterious). The cover alludes to the adventure the characters will embark on, as well as their efforts to “shed light” on the secrets of the boarding school. I kept the colors pretty limited with a subtle charcoal and a warm off-white to give the feeling of a chalkboard.

Probably my favorite part to work on was the text. I’ve loved seeing the trend of YA book covers featuring hand lettered titles, and I was able to execute exactly what I had in mind for this one.

All I can say is I wish I could read this book!

-Sarah Bloom

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Challenge 135: YA Book Jacket: The Mysterious Lands of Speak Never

This one was a challenge indeed! Between coming up with something original that hadn’t been done by one of the other nine members and not having the source material to pull inspiration and details from, it was tough to come up with a design. Also drawing hands. That was actually the hardest part. That said, this was such a good prompt, and I would totally read this book if it really existed! -Sayada

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Challenge 135 : YA Book Jacket : Speak Never of What’s to Come

What an adventure to jump into a book and find out where it will all take you. Down a fictional fantasy adventure, a romantic in counter, a building friendship, a comedic dystopian bond, or a horrific mystery of unconscious devastation. What is beyond the pages, of what we soon will never find out. An adventure none the else creating a book jacket with the brilliant mind and idea from art director/ author Caitlin. All the different ways of interpretation you can truly never judge a book by it cover but love the mystery of what’s to come from it.

-Emily McA

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Challenge 135: YA Book Jacket: Friendship I really enjoyed getting to make a twist on this challenge-- thanks to all of my fellow Square Carouselians for being good sports about their “Art Director” through this project! I’ve been really into illustrating and designing book jackets lately, so this was a fun experiment. My concept for this cover is as follows: we’re looking at the four friends, from the top down, while they're embracing each other in a difficult moment. It indicates that there will be tension within the book, and close relationships between the four main characters. Choosing this angle allows for the faces to be more obscured and ambiguous so the reader can still use their imagination somewhat, while reading. The back cover is simple, with the blurb box having a hint of landscape at the bottom. Caitlin

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Challenge 135: YA Book Jacket: Noir Thriller

I imagined this story as sort of a mystery thriller, and tried to give my illustration a noir feel with the high contrast red against black and white. This design incorporates several elements laid out on the surface that imply mystery and adventure, such as a map, a compass, a pen, photograph, and a spilled bottle of ink among other things. And of course there is the tie, featuring a boarding school crest, which runs through the entire composition and wraps around to the back cover where it acts as a frame for the summary text.

The tie looks as if it has been haphazardly dropped on the surface, representing its owner's escape from or rejection of the school. The map and compass imply a plan to travel somewhere, and the spilled ink and other scattered objects imply some unknown conflict while giving hints as to what they might encounter on their journey.

This was a very fun project as I have not had the opportunity to work on any book cover designs before. You can tell I really enjoyed working with lots of detail and coming up with the full wrap-around image.

James

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Challenge 135: YA Book Jacket

I'm your (and my own?) Art Director at Square Carousel Publishing House and I've got a job that would be great for your style. We need a paperback book jacket for an upcoming highly-anticipated YA and I'd like to have two sketched concept options before or on Friday, July 31st, with the final artwork on Monday, August 10th. Good? Good. Here's more specs: Size: we want the full paperback jacket, so front, back and spine but no flaps. This edition is 9x6 with 0.125 bleed and a 1.515625 spine (I know, I know, with a 400 PPI paper that makes the book 600 pages. It's epic! And we could probably stand to get a new editor) Title: Speak Never Author:  S.C. Morris Back copy: Don't worry about this for now-- just leave the space for it Content of art: This book has it all, and is targeted to both male and female young adult readers. It has four protagonists: Taylor, July, Jules and Alex and because every chapter changes POV, they're equally important. You can feature any or all or none of them. The plot focuses on their journey across a fictionalized continent where they've been raised at a mysterious boarding school filled with corruption. Our protagonists know nothing of the world beyond the school and realize quickly why it was so corrupt, as they explore further... Some themes are: friendship, courage, self-discovery and challenging ignorance. You could take any of these angles for your cover, or if you'd prefer to be more narrative, focus on the characters or the myriad of landscapes they encounter on their continent. Really, it's up to you because you're the artist and SCPH wants you to create something that utilizes your skills and style best! Have fun! - Caitlin A.