'Spooks' Book cover

For this brief, the client already had a good idea of what they wanted for the book cover. They definitely wanted a depiction of a cat painting in the story. With the title being 'Spooks' there was the concern that it would look like a book about ghosts or something else spooky. However, it's a pretty funny book and definitely not about ghosts. The target audience for the book is primarily women aged 35 to 50. After having a good look at covers for women's fiction, the first cover I came up with was this:

One thing I like about this cover is the simplicity of it. However I also feel as though it is simultaneously it's downfall. The client was really happy with the title text but I felt like something was missing from the cover. I felt like the painting needed more context and the overall composition felt a bit cold.

I decided to depict the painting in a gallery space (which is relevant to the story), using two characters to show this. I think this image looks more complete, however I am still unsure about whether or not it is a good book cover. Part of me feels like the characters at the front are too distracting and perhaps the dark hair makes the whole piece slightly unbalanced? 

Even though this will only initially be an e-book, when the designs are mocked up, I actually think I prefer the first design. The final decision isn't mine however and really I'd be happy with either of them. 

Throughout level 6 I would definitely like to do some more work on book covers. Maybe as part of my studio practice I could produce covers for some books of my choice? I think it's a skill that lots of illustrators should refine because publishing is where a lot of illustrators get their work. This project was turned around in about a day and if I had more time, I think I could have produced something a little better. If I were to set my own brief so that I could explore book covers/maybe book promotion a little more, I would be able to spend more time refining the work.