Nora Roberts's Facelift Project: May 2012

May 31, 2012

Nora Roberts's Facelift Project - Day 26

I'm stuck again, wishing I could draw better. I'll start a drawing course on Sunday, I hope it'll help!

May 29, 2012

Nora Roberts's Facelift Project - Day 24

I wanted to do something more focoused on type, so this is the next challenge:

Vs.

May 28, 2012

Nora Roberts's Facelift Project - Day 23

I'm sorry, I'm sooo sorry. But I wanted it to be good this time. I'm pretty happy with it.
So here it is, Nora Roberts's Considering Kate:

Tell me what you think!

May 24, 2012

Nora Roberts's Facelift Project - Day 19

I know, I know, I should have posted already. But, honestly, there was no time. I swear. I've been having so much fun doing two freelance works that actually pay that this project got left behind a little bit. But only a little bit, I'm still working on it. And since I'll be done with the freelance business today, I'll be able to go back to working on the cover for Considering Kate. Hang on tight!

May 20, 2012

Nora Roberts's Facelift Project - Day 15

'Considering Kate' doesn't have such horrible covers comparing to the ones I showed here before:

They really could be a lot worse, you have to admit it.

Still, it could also be much better and I really like the story.

This will be the inspiration for the next cover:

May 19, 2012

Nora Roberts's Facelift Project - Day 14

Too easy.
Here:

Next!

May 17, 2012

Nora Roberts's Facelift Project - Day 13

Next round:

Opposites Attract

Cover of: Opposites attract by Nora Roberts

I know.

Here's the rival:

Let's do it!

May 16, 2012

Nora Roberts's Facelift Project - Day 12

It's finally here!
I always have a hard time to consider something finished. I always think I can tweak for a bit longer, which is usually true, but this couldn't wait anymore.
I have to say, I'm a lot happier with this outcome than with the last one. It's a very simple cover, but it has elements of celtic design and kinda looks like a book on myths and tales, which is what I was aiming for. One can also notice I didn't use any images of tears nor of moons. Good on me.
Anyways, enough of that. Here it is.

Original:

Inspiration:

Final design:

Hope you like it! I'd love some feedback!

May 13, 2012

Nora Roberts's Facelift Project - Day 9

In 2006 I took a course in Celtic design with Cari Buziak. It's finally gonna come in handy!

May 12, 2012

Nora Roberts's Facelift Project - Day 8

Sneak-a-peek:

May 11, 2012

Nora Roberts's Facelift Project - Day 7

Not much to be said about today. Did some doodling, some sketching, some mind-mapping. I'm not sure if I'm ready to share those yet.
Just as I did today, tomorrow I'll spend the whole day at a creativity conference in SFU, so I probably won't be able to get much done. I'm stirring the ideas inside of my head, though! I hope I can make them come to life.

May 10, 2012

Nora Roberts's Facelift Project - Day 6 - Round 2

VERSUS

FIGHT!

Nora Roberts's Facelift Project - Day 6

Aaaaaaand...

Here it is, the first redesigned cover for one of Nora Roberts's books.

I'm not completely happy with it, but this is only the fisrt one. I think it ended up looking more teenager-like than I wanted, but I kinda like the results, even though I know it's not perfect...

Here's the original, just in case someone missed a post:

Comment if you like it, comment if you hate it. I aprreciate any feedback at all.

May 9, 2012

Nora Roberts's Facelift Project - Day 5

a spur-of-the-moment decision to go to Arctic Monkeys and Black Keys's concert tonight has made it impossible for me to finish the cover I promised. Tomorrow, you have my word.

May 8, 2012

Nora Roberts's Facelift Project - Day 4

This is harder than I thought.

Way harder.

But I've made progress. You'll be able to see it tomorrow.

PS: I've bought paper. And pencils.

May 7, 2012

Nora Roberts's Facelift Project - Day 3 1/2

And thus I find out I don't have any paper to draw what I need on. Nice.

Nora Roberts's Facelift Project - Day 3

I lived in Australia for a year in 2004, with Rotary's Youth Exchange Program. During my English classes, I learned a study technique that I often use for creativity purposes: mindmapping.
Since I don't have briefing to work with for this project, I tried to remember the story as well as I could. Here's the mindmap that I made to gather some aspects of Nora Roberts's The Perfect Neighbour in order to get my ideas organised:

I added more things after I took this picture, but it actually started to become very confusing for someone outside of my own mind, so I don't think it makes a difference.

Mindmapping is always useful. If you want to learn the logic behind it, drop me a line and I'll do my best to explain!

I also found some cover of other edditions of The Perfect Neighbor, none quite as horrible as the first one I posted. Still, none are good. Take a look:

I have also decided on the cover that will inspire me for this cover: Remarkable, by Lizzie K. Foley, from Dial:

Let's see what I can do!

May 6, 2012

Nora Roberts's Facelift Project - Day 2

The way I like to work, and I belive a lot of other designers would agree with me, is to take a look at what's already out there before diving into a project. I thought of doing some research in Books By Its Cover, which is an awesome site, but I missed the feeling of actually being in a bookstore. So today I went to Chapters in Metropolis (a shopping mall in Burnaby) and spent almost two hours there, looking at book covers and taking note of my favorite ones. If I liked it, I'd write down the name of the book and the publisher, to make it easier to know which edition it was that caught my attention. Simple as that. Below I included the complete list. As you can see, I have a very varied taste. I love minimalistic covers just as much as I love the flourished ones. I went to every part of the store, minus the little kids corner. So you'll see all kinds of books: self help, romances, science fiction, teens...

For the Nora Roberts' Facelift Project, the plan is chose one of the covers from the list below and use it as inspiration for the redesign of a Nora Roberts book cover. I don't intend to copy anything, mind you, simply to try my hand at different aesthetics and techniques. The first one will be up soon!

Daughters who walk this path | Penguin