Extra, extra, read all about it! An interview with Lisa Novak, who designed the gorgeous covers for Other and Bloodborn. Curious about their creation? Look no further for behind-the-scenes details! Want to know about Lisa’s favorite covers, and thoughts on new trends? Read on.
My most burning question, which I will shamelessly ask you first: How did the design process go for the covers of Other and Bloodborn? What was the trickiest moment, and what was the most satisfying?
One thing about the publishing process that I think most people don’t realize is how long it actually takes from the point that an author turns in a manuscript until it shows up as an actual book at a bookstore. It isn’t uncommon for it to take up to 1 year or more! I mention this because I think it’s been nearly 2 years since I designed Other, and so some of what went into the creation of your cover has been lost to time and gotten all jumbled up with the hundreds of other covers that I’ve designed since. But I will do my best to remember!
I started my design process by searching a number of different stock photo websites for my main images. In this case, Gwen, and the creatures she shapeshifts into, the forest. For your book I think one of the biggest challenges I had was finding a girl of the right age with curly red hair. Often publishers stay away from putting faces on covers for this reason, because it’s hard to find the exact right image, it takes a long time (and because it could get in the way of the reader’s imagination). Although in the past few years it seems like faces are making a bit of a comeback on covers. Contrary to what most people think, most publishers do not employ photographers and hire models to create covers, we rely on stock photo websites almost exclusively.
Another challenge I ran into with Other was deciding whether to show Gwen shapeshifting into a horse or an owl. The group that met to decide the look of the cover really wanted to show her shifting into a horse because they thought the audience would respond more to that than an owl. But I have to say, there’s really no good way to morph a girl’s face into a horse. Trust me, it’s just not pretty. So once I stopped trying to go in that direction the cover came together rather quickly and easily.
Blending the owl feathers into her shoulder was a smooth process. The only thing that ended up getting eliminated in the final version that I had in my original design was that I had her nose morphing into a beak. But the response was that her face was more attractive without it. And I thought with the yellow eyes and feathers I got the point across well enough that she’s shifting into an owl.
The last couple things I added that I think give the cover some suspense is I gave the forest the slightest bit of a motion blur to add a little movement and atmosphere. And finally, the shadow of the werewolf. Gwen isn’t exactly looking at him, but there’s an alertness in her that gives you the impression that she’s aware of his presence.
I haven’t talked about the font yet, sometimes a font will drive a cover design, other times it’s the last thing I add. In this case I had the design done and then I went hunting for just the right font. I wanted something that was easy to read, but had a bit of mystery and romance and fantasy to it. Oh, and it had to be unique. I probably tested at least 60 fonts before I found this one and to this day I am still very satisfied with it. Plus, by sheer luck, I think the letters work well for the next book in the series, too.
Speaking of the next book in the series, Bloodborn was one of those covers that was long on the front end, short on the tail end. What I mean is that I searched for days through the stock photo sites to find the right photo of Brock and Cynthia. I had a really hard time finding an embrace involving a blond-haired guy and a dark-haired girl where it was actually focusing on the guy. Anything remotely like that seemed to be focused on the girl. It’s one of those cases where the committee wanted something pretty specific and the character descriptions are already set, so it comes down to paging through thousands of photos to find the right one. Once I found this photo the execution of the design went really fast. Since Brock is struggling with being a werewolf I obviously needed the full moon in the background. I gave the whole thing a blue cast to make it look like it was night, and by making this one blue I thought it would make a nice companion (color-wise) to the golden/orange/brown Other. After that it was just a matter of making his eyes yellow to indicate the change is happening.
What are some of your all-time favorite covers, and why?
I know this is going to probably sound lame, but I don’t really have a running list of all time favorite covers. When I go to the bookstore I love so much of what I see, so much of it inspires me, I tend not to keep covers in my head too long or I’d be overwhelmed. I do go to bookstores quite often to get my creative juices flowing though. If I’m stuck on a design all I have to do is hit our local bookstore and 20 minutes later I’m walking out with 10 new ideas of how to execute my cover. That’s totally not to say that I steal ideas from other covers, but seeing really well put together cover art gives me ideas on new things to try with my own project.
Having said that I can pick out a few covers that have inspired me lately. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the cover for The Replacement. It’s so creepy and atmospheric and really well done. The first time I saw that cover my heart caught in my throat. And to find out that the artist (not sure who) constructed that scene by pulling together all those knives, the buggy, the background and seamed it together flawlessly really impressed me.
Another cover that really intrigued me in the last year or two was Beautiful Creatures. When I first saw it on the shelf at my local bookstore I couldn’t keep my hands off of it, the lavender metallic embossed type is amazing. That font choice is genius and beautiful and so creatively executed. And the whole thing is just so jarring with the elaborate type and the creepy forest inviting you in. I love it.
A lot of the covers that I have felt inspired by lately have been designed by Sammy Yuen. I think Sammy is a fantastic illustrator and designer. His illustrations for the Scott Westerfeld and Catherine Fisher books really excite me. He also does the beautiful covers for the very cool Holly Black books as well as the super creative Ellen Hopkins covers. Seeing other designers do really great work encourages me to try harder and push myself farther as well.
I’ve been seeing several trends in young adult cover design lately. Beautiful girls, often in beautiful dresses, and few covers that aren’t photographic. I’m curious to hear your take on these trends, and what you think will be trendy next.
Like you, I’ve noticed the beautiful girls in dresses trend as well, maybe decadence and beauty are making a comeback? That sort of thing is cyclical and tends to come back into fashion in art/writing when we are going through rough times. We all want escapism and even more so when we are living our lives closer to the bone. Another trend that has been building for the past 3 – 4 years is the overwhelming number of black, or very dark covers that have taken over the shelves with the popularity of vampire and paranormal stories. I’ve been kind of amazed at the life the vampires have been enjoying this time around. And I don’t really see an end in sight to this trend.
I would say that the biggest, overarching trend that I’ve been watching is the maturation of YA fiction. I’ve only been designing YA fiction for about 5 years now but I can tell you in that time I’ve noticed this genre has grown up A LOT. Covers geared toward teens have gone from having illustrated, bubble gum pop kind of covers with lots of fun colors to much more serious photographic covers that have grown increasingly darker (both in color and in content) and more sophisticated in their execution. I think the covers geared at today’s teens are reflecting their level of maturity and how much older a 13 or 14 year old is than when I was a kid. Also, the fact that today’s teens are saturated in media of all kinds and used to seeing extremely sophisticated graphics on all their devices. I think it sets the bar a lot higher for any designer trying to catch the eye of a teen reader. I also find it very interesting how so many of the books on the YA shelves could just as easily be shelved in adult trade fiction these days. Dystopian fiction, paranormal, steampunk, issue-driven fiction, they are all meaty subjects that demand serious covers. And we’re finding that today’s teens are responding more and more to books that treat them like the smart, thinking people they are.
Lisa Novak has always loved art and from the time she could pick up a crayon knew she wanted to be an artist. After 14 years in the publishing world she’s designed covers for books about vampires, mysteries, memoirs and sewing. But her passion lies in the creation of covers for young adult novels. You can view highlights of her work on her website.
(Thanks so much, Lisa, for stopping by!)
