It’s officially Release Week! I can’t believe that in just five days Pumpkins in the Forest will be out for everyone! To celebrate, this week my posts will focus on the art of books. Today, I’m talking about book covers as art we see every day and giving a look into my thought process for my own book cover design. Stay tuned for a special Everyday Art post on Thursday about some really cool authors I’ve come across this year!
Also, if you haven’t yet, you can preorder my book now! Check out Barnes and Noble, or see my Etsy shop to get a signed copy with art prints for 10% off, only this week (and paid subscribers always get 30% off)!
Inkheart
When I think about my favorite book covers, I’m taken back to 4th grade when I started reading the Inkheart series. I remember carrying the first book around with me everywhere - I think I got it from a book fair that year. I would have it sitting on the corner of my desk for whenever we got some downtime in class that I could use to tear through the book, and I always loved looking at the cover. It perfectly captured the adventure and magic of the story with fun colors and stunning details. To this day it’s one of my favorite covers.
Covers as Art
I don’t usually buy multiple copies of a book just to have. As much as I love having physical books, I also try to be mindful of the amount of things I have lying around my house at any given time, so I’m usually pretty selective with which books I actually buy - that doesn’t leave much room for duplicates. I have, however, made exceptions to this rule. When I was in high school, I read The Count of Monte Cristo and absolutely loved it. The complexity of the story and the depth of the themes made it instantly my favorite book of all time! Of course, I first read it as a digital copy, so that meant I had to get a physical one ASAP.
Since then I’ve gotten a few copies of the book. One is a Spanish edition that I promise I will get to reading through one day, and it has a pretty simple, green cover that doesn’t really have any sort of design. On the other hand, the other copy I own is a special one that I found among the Barnes and Noble collectors’ editions (I’m admittedly a bit of a sucker for them). It’s a beautiful hardcover copy with over 1000 pages and lots of fun designs and illustrations. The cover itself is a work of art with classic design elements and color crawling over every inch of it. It holds a prominent position on my bookshelf in my living room now, and I love seeing it there.
This particular book is one of the best examples of a cover being used as a work of art to express the story within. I think most covers do this, but there are some that do it especially well. I have a copy of the Giver quartet bound up in one hardcover volume, for instance, that also has a very classic design that incorporates elements of the stories all throughout. It’s beautifully expressive and has become another one of my favorite designs. Truly book covers are a type of art that not only are expressions of the story itself, but they also become art for us, the readers, as we come to associate them with our favorite books and display them to express our love for the tales they hold.
I think about the classic Percy Jackson or Harry Potter cover designs. Recently both series have had re-releases with updated covers, which is fine, I suppose, but I can’t help but feel something lost when I see the new cover art. Not that the designs are bad, per se, but they don’t express the stories I grew to love when I was younger. The cover art is directly tied to the story for me, and that makes it hard to see something else in its place after so many years. I’m sure younger readers just seeing these books for the first time now would say the same thing about the original covers, though.
Pumpkins in the Forest Cover Art
With several years of graphic design experience and a pretty bare-bones budget, I went into the publishing process determined to create my own cover art. It was ambitious, and you all can decide if I made the right call, but earlier this year I got to work and began drafting the cover. It went through many iterations full of Fall trees and pumpkins before I changed tactics and looked to my copy of The Count of Monte Cristo for inspiration.
I realized the look I actually wanted for the cover was something classic that made it feel like opening an old storybook. I liked the idea of it being timeless and a little ornate, even, so I put the corner designs on and included vines stemming from a pumpkin to underline the first word of the title.
Then I wanted to include a window into the Autumn Forest that the book is all about, so I placed the opening in the center, looking onto a scene of colorful trees. It took some editing, and feedback from you all, but I finally got the trees how I wanted them to look, and I was very happy with the detail. Of course the fonts had to match the classic feel, so I went with a script fonts that leaned towards a serif look (which is what most of the fonts in the book are). Finally, I added vines and the Fall leaves and made them look as if they were blowing around in the breeze.
When I was done, I was very happy with how it looked (although I did make several minor edits before finalizing it). Now I am happy with the balance of classic and expressive. I hope you all enjoy the design as much as I do and that the book earns a spot on your living room bookshelf or coffee table!
I hope you enjoyed this exhibit in the Every Day Museum of Art! I love sharing everyday art that can be enjoyed by anyone, so I hope this encourages you to be creative today! If you’re new, I hope you stick around to see the art that we discuss here every week as well as the Everyday Art posts where I feature other artists and writers from around Substack. If you want to be featured, send me your art!
Also, I have recently finished my own book! It’s called Pumpkins in the Forest, and it’s a cozy fiction book about Autumn and the beauty we see around us in everyday life. If you want to keep up with the process, I’m giving weekly updates for paid subscribers (only $5/month!), and a paid subscription comes with a 30% discount for the book and for my shop on Etsy. You can also support me by checking out my art on Etsy or my book Instagram where I post cozy content and book sneak peeks:
A fun read, Joshua! Loved reading about your book cover!
Kelly here — I retired early to slow travel the world, and your post was such a fun stop along the way. Gorgeous covers and such an interesting read — I especially loved your pumpkins cover.
You’ve got a real gift for design and storytelling together.
Book covers, like travel postcards, are little pieces of art tied to memory — and yours absolutely capture that.