Ojingogo Book Cover Design

Update: Yes, I do contract/custom book cover design. Please contact me directly to inquire about rates.

Here’s an early sketch I found for the Ojingogo book cover. I loved doing cover / production design. I wanted the cover to hint at the whole story – the same way Saul Bass’ credit sequences do for the films they introduce.

It was also important the cover be a good design and not necessarily a good illustration. Too many comics rely on good illustrations – or worse – ruin good illustrations by neglecting design.

I was also taking photos of book covers wherever I went. Here are a few book covers I found in Paris last Spring:

This is a popular, classic French book design…

A Japanese book I found in Kinokuniya bookstore, Paris:

Awesome. Knew I wasn’t going to use it, but srsly awesome nonetheless.

In the end, I went with a combination of this cover which is a classic French design:

… and mixed it (probably too strongly) with the amazing cover design by Ray Fenwick in his Hall of Best Knowledge:

Ray and I did book launches together in Toronto. He told me he originally wanted to silkscreen white ink onto the cover – similar to Dash Shaw’s Bottomless Bellybutton cover. Which is exactly what I wanted to do with the white illumination on my cover. But turned out to be too impractical. So the white illumination for both our books is just the white paper underneath.

Here’s the finished cover:

Update: Yes, I do contract/custom book cover design. Please contact me directly to inquire about rates.

Also some Ojingogo book news:

Largehearted Boy interviewed me for his awesome Book Notes series.

Ojingogo comic is in American bookstores as of February 3. So you can get it on Amazon.com now.

Tagged as: book cover design, book design, comic book cover, Comics, cover design, freelance, graphic novels, how to make a book cover, Ojingogo