Role

Cover Illustration, Typography, Paperback Design, & Typesetting

Brief

I was tasked with designing distinct, on genre cozy fantasy book covers, & title typography for emerging author Max Vale using a mix of photo compositing, AI image generation, and digital painting.

Some books would also need jackets designed for print as well as their manuscripts typeset for print.

Creative Direction

Being new to cozy LitRPGs, I studied the visual language of the genre and learned how the most successful series present themselves. I leaned into that style for my cover designs while also seeking to improve the rubric with more style and better execution.

For each novel I sought to understand the fantasy of the book (running your own shop, growing an epic garden, finding homes for fantastic animals, etc) and designed everything on the cover to highlight that fantasy. Each cover is meant to invite you in with warmth, and personality while tapping into an emotion resonant with the story.

Deliverables

• Cover artwork for 6 books

• Series typography for 4 books

• Paperback design and typesetting for 3 books

Results

• Tonic Shop at The Edge of the World has become a hit series for the author, with 3 books in the series and more planned.

• Tonic Shop at the Edge of the World 3 reached the top 1,000 books on the Kindle Store and top 20 in the GameLit & LitRPG genre

• Kill ‘Em With Kindness, The Legendary Loot Shop of Solshire, & The Unfamiliar Familiar Emporium have each reached into the top 20,000 books on the Kindle Store