Spring 16 Covers!

Design Trend: Double Exposure

Like most people, I've recently discovered and become obsessed with the HBO show, True Detective. But my love affair began with the mesmerizing opening credits by Elastic production studio. The sequence shows double exposure photos of landscapes captured in silhouetted human forms. Visual metaphors at their best. Now I'm seeing double exposures everywhere:

The work of photographer Dan Mountford has been on my radar for a while. This image in particular is a favorite.

And most recently spotted, this advert for PS4's Thief on 4th Avenue in Brooklyn. Not quite the same level of design-sophistication, but it does speak to the strength of the double exposure trend.

Look for more double exposure coming to YA shelves near you ...

Design Trend: Painterly Type

On a recent visit to Powell's Books in Portland, Oregon, I naturally gravitated to the wall of new novel releases. For both Adult and YA, the type treatment of the moment is this painterly, brush-stroke-like hand lettering that's 1) quite large—as in, it takes up most of the cover; 2) a basic color, mainly white or black; and 3) at a slightly left-sloping angle. Some of my favorites:

Which then got the wheels turning and ultimately inspired the final iteration of Lauren Myracle's upcoming YA novel, The Infinite Moment of Us. A complete look at the making of the cover coming next week. Stay tuned!

Handlettered type

Hand-lettered type. My first go at hand-lettering for a jacket. Took quite a few tries, three sharpie markers, and pages of vellum to get it right. New jacket art for Lauren's Myracle's upcoming novel to be revealed shortly!

Book Title Logos

I'm always on about book titles as logos. And I'm sure I've mentioned a time or two that my design process always starts with the book title, which means I begin with the development of a logo. Here's a look at some Amulet and BYR titles in their pure logotype form: