My Cover Design Work

[Kealan Patrick Burke]

Awesome! Why isn't your name on the CD website for the striking The Influence cover?

Credit in the book's interior is enough for me

[srboone]

Fair enough.

[Kealan Patrick Burke]

And here is the new book design website:

http://www.elderlemondesign.com

[peteOcha]

And here is the new book design website:

http://www.elderlemondesign.com

Really like the Wool cover! Very cool!

[Tommy]

Really like the Wool cover! Very cool!

I second that, very nice cover!

[Kealan Patrick Burke]

Thanks guys!

[TJCams]

They has a very cool look to it. Regardless, they are all well done.

[TJCams]

Kealan - I have a question for you.

Aside from your own novels - when you are designing a cover for a book, how do you figure out what kind of drawings, pictures, etc. are going to go on the cover? Do you have to read a transcript, or a summary of the story/characters? Is it something you collaborate with the author or editor? When do you go to an artist like Caruso, etc.?

[Kealan Patrick Burke]

TJ: I use stock art or in-house photography only. I don't hire artists. If I can't do the composite myself, I pass on the project. So far this has only happened once, with a science fiction cover that needed an illustrator, not a graphic designer (this is why I don't do SF covers). Usually the author will give me the concept they have in mind, in addition to a synopsis. If either of those is not enough, I'll read some of the book to get a feel for the tone, etc.

[TJCams]

Very interesting - I was always curious if certain that featured a person for example, was as you said "in-house photography", or public domain type images. Like the Kill Whitey cover, or the cover for the one Gonzalez title where the guy is sitting on a chair. Those are everyday looking people. Or even ones where this a house or building....

Thanks - it was something I always thought about.

[Brian James Freeman]

Kealan is working on covers for a series of Top Secret projects for us and they're AMAZING.

Brian

[TJCams]

I had no idea he did the cover for The Influence - it is simple, but very good.

I am curious to see what else he has in store for us Brian.

[Kealan Patrick Burke]

Very interesting - I was always curious if certain that featured a person for example, was as you said "in-house photography", or public domain type images. Like the Kill Whitey cover, or the cover for the one Gonzalez title where the guy is sitting on a chair. Those are everyday looking people. Or even ones where this a house or building....

Thanks - it was something I always thought about.

TJ: My girlfriend is a professional photographer, and she specializes in dark images, so if we can get the shot ourselves we will. For example, the guy in the chair on JF's cover is me, and we shot that at Mansfield Reformatory, (i.e. Shawshank)

[Kealan Patrick Burke]

Kealan is working on covers for a series of Top Secret projects for us and they're AMAZING.

Brian

Thanks Brian!

[Kealan Patrick Burke]

Here's the reworked cover for my short story OFFLINE:

Offline NEW.jpg