It started with a blog, post, a meeting, and an eight year old image. When I first met with Dean, the client and individual that got sucked into an underwater cave during a vacation with his family in St. Croix, he said that he wanted his cover to be dark and, well, watery. He wanted to covey the lack of hope, the feeling that this underwater cave might just become his tomb. Yet, as he spoke about his book and how he was setting up the narrative, it was clear that a spark of hope was present—a light at the end of the tunnel.
During this conversation, the above image was present in my minds eye. Taken during my senior year of high school with a cheap underwater camera and then edited, I felt like it represented that darkness while also leaving some room for the light. With this as a starting point, I worked to provide my client with several options for his book cover.
As with any major project, I started with a mood board. This helped me get some inspiration and see what others were doing on book covers. That reference point was important, as this was the first book cover I have designed in several years and the only book cover that was set to be published.
I wanted to provide my client with a wide range of options, though I had a favorite going into it. The differences in style was largely since the client didn't know what they wanted past a general feeling, and I wanted to provide him with options even if they were somewhat outside of my comfort zone. The middle illustration took the most inspiration from that original image and held a special place in my heart throughout the design process. It was, in fact, my first design and my preference of it made the design process for the other versions more difficult.
After choosing this version, I made necessary tweaks to the image. Since I illustrated the image myself, I had a lot more control over things like placement and color. The type on the front cover and the spine were also hand drawn to mimic some of the line quality found in the illustration. I added the shine-like gradient to the title to give the impression of a glimmer of hope in the darkness. Furthermore, I created the image so the back cover would have more light than the front, as a way to represent the hopeful progression of the story.
