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Book Cover Design

Here are the answers to your questions about book cover design from Erika Fusari.  You can access a portfolio of designs created at Erika Fusari and Lauren Graessle Design portfolio.  In fact, Erika has even lived and worked in Japan!  Please read her responses and leave a comment.

What kind of tools do you use to design a book 
cover?

i usually start with doing research from books 
+ online resources, then i sketch out my ideas, 
when i'm happy with some of my sketches i put 
the cover together using an apple computer. the 
programs i use are indesign, illustrator + photoshop.


How do you decide the design of the book 
covers?

by reading the manuscript. sometimes the editor,
author or publisher has some ideas of what they 
would like to see but mostly i will read all or 
part of the story and then come up with concepts.


What colors or designs are most effective to 
attract people?

not really, i think it's more about how you use 
the color and designs to communicate something 
interesting about that book, this in turn will 
make people curious about its content. but it's 
good to remember design is very subjective and 
what appeals to one person may not to another.


How many people are needed for designing a book 
cover?

usually just the designer, but sometimes there
 is an art director who gives the designer a 
direction to go in. in the end the design has to 
be approved by the editor, author and publisher,
they may ask for changes, this really makes book 
design a bit of a collaborative effort.


How long does it usually take to design a book 
cover?

it can take 1 day to several weeks, it depends on
the deadline. also sometimes a designer may 
immediately have an idea that will be successful, 
sometimes it takes a while to get ideas and then 
it's always nice to take time to printout designs and 
look at them for ways to improve them.

posted by: MaryH at May 06, 2007 12:31 | link | comments (3) |

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