Cover Design

I came across this thumbnail sketch this week while digging through some old sketchbooks.

It’s the cover design for Ojingogo book two. I think a good cover is 9 parts design and 1 part illustration. A good design can compensate for a poor illustration but not the other way around.

Here’s the final cover in Photoshop with about 35 layers:

When I started designing the original Ojingogo book, I looked at a few different books for inspiration. I found this awesome book in a Toronto library – Hong Kong Comics:

It’s full of classic Hong Kong Manhua comic book covers. Awesome, inspiring stuff. I also looked at a bunch of contemporary stuff including, of course, Seth’s covers for The Complete Peanuts series:

It’s simple, clean, and hand-lettered; all the things I’m drawn to in a comic book cover. (By the way, I just found a great article on the making of these Peanuts covers over here.)

I’m sold out of green Ojingogo books. (Thank you to everyone who bought a copy!) So this week I’m doing another print run of 200 green books and another 100 red & blue books plus 200 new sketchbooks for the MoCCA Art Fest in New York.

I had a look at the sketchbook proofs today and I love them. I was worried it would be boring and narcissistic to do a sketchbook of my stuff – but it turned out great. I think there’s lots of energy in there and it’s the kind of the thing I’d be happy to buy – therefore it’s something I’m happy to sell.