NaNoWriMo Covers

TYPOGRAPHY \ COMPOSITION \ EDITORIAL

A Personal Project in Collaboration with the NaNoWriMo community.

Since these covers were not done for profit and were created very quickly, I made use of user generated imagery from Pexels, Unsplash, and Pixabay.

This was a passion project one of the communities I’m active in.

I’m a hobby novelist who participates in the National Novel Writing Month challenge to write 50,000 words in one month. As a community we find ways to inspire and encourage each other. Creating our own book covers helps writers stay motivated to complete this 30 day challenge.

Not everyone has the means or skillset to make their own cover, so I offered my talents and passion for design to my fellow writers.

I outlined a creative brief, posted it in the NaNoWriMo forums, and asked the writers to fill it out.

I was able to capture the writer’s ideas and vision without sacrificing creative freedom. When extremely specific and fantastical requests were made that stretched beyond the scope of the project, I sent a note to redefine their expectations and discuss alternative imagery.

I challenged myself to find a balance between quantity and quality. In 7 weeks I designed 78 unique novel covers.

For each novel I came up with 3 separate ideas. Then I chose the 1 or 2 that I liked best and refined them.