Version One – I started this piece with the paper cutout effect on the title and author name. After sourcing the center illustration on a copyright free website I echoed the organic shape on alternating corners and modified the colors to ensure everything was harmonious.

Version Two – Inspired by the trend of bright orange self help covers spearheaded by “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck”, I started with an orange background and bold white font. In an effort to make the title bold enough, I reorganized the elements to disperse the tagline between words of the title. The cover was feeling a bit plain with only text, so I added various weights of light orange lines to contribute visual interest.

Version Three – Another trend I noticed in self help books was yellow with white and black text. It took some time to arrange the repeated text in a way I liked and went through multiple iterations, but with a little tweaking I ended up with this center aligned monospace text treatment.

Version One – This piece started with locating a copyright free image on unsplash and expanding it using Photoshop’s content aware fill and photo retouching techniques. For this version my goal was to evoke a silent, empty, haunting feeling.

Version Two – My original idea for this concept was something like this – photobashing several images together to create a realtor “for sale” sign that held the title and author name in front of the house from the story. Unfortunately, the only free elements I could find were snowy, so it ended up a little more wintery than I’d hoped, but I still enjoy the result, and I made sure to add snow to the top of the signpost to keep it coherent with the rest of the piece.

Version Three – Inspired by the “for sale” sign mockup from version two, I made this cover fully text focused. The red cover and white border/block elements evoke the same sign, and leave plenty of room for a longer pull quote. This cover felt more non-fiction or literary fiction than the previous two, so I altered said quote to match that genre.

These three pieces were all inspired by a deep love of space and scifi. I used multiple copyright free images from unsplash and blended them through various layer modes and color alterations.

Version One – The single figure on a desert-like ground, surrounded by sand and stars, evokes a feeling of loneliness or isolation. The ‘O’ in ‘Beyond’ is obscured by the figure’s helmet, but I kept it highlighted by creating an eclipse-life effect around the edge of the helmet and maintained legibility of the title by including outlines where it passes behind the figure.

Version Two – The silhouettes of a planet in five phases creates a line to draw the eye into the center, towards the title. A backdrop of stars and nebula clouds allows the text to stand out boldly, assisted by a subtle dropshadow to increase legibility.

Version Three – This is the most experimental of the three covers I created, and is by far the most complex. It features a rocket blasting off from a dark, partially obscured city, and the text in the center is framed by bright, colorful clouds of space dust.