Here's quick little project I completed not long ago. A publisher asked me to finish a book cover design they had mocked up. They provided the high resolution images and a rough layout, then I had to take it to print-ready form. To the right is an image of the mock up. Here's the process I went through:

1. Background image provided by client.
2. A copy of the background that has been blurred is placed on top, 45% transparency.
3. Another copy of the background with a larger blur is placed on top with 15% transparency.
4. The background image is placed with 'Soft Light' transparency to boost color.
5. The road sign image is placed
6. The road sign image is color adjusted to be warmer.
7. Drop shadow is created under the road sign.
8. An orange color bar with 'Hard Light' transparency added.
9. Author's name placed on orange color bar.
10. Book title added, with a bevel and drop shadow to make it pop.
11. Finally, the subtitle is added, and the cover is complete.

The publisher and author were very happy with the final product... it turned out much better than they anticipated.

I recently designed a science fiction book titled Judgment on Tartarus (to be released on Jan. 15, 2011). I'm a big sci-fi fan, so I was glad to be able to work on this project. And since it has just been solicited at Amazon, I can share some details. For this particular book I designed the cover, as well as the interior pages.

Cover Design
The cover design request consisted of the following:

Outerspace with a gray-blue or purple planet in the foreground, with a faint star in the background shedding a little light on the planet. The planet has two moons.

Finally, I chose a futuristic looking font called Uni-Sans Bold to create the title text. I put a small bevel on it and a drop shadow to make it pop.



Interior Page Design

For the interior pages, I had complete freedom to choose the fonts, design the individual pages and chapter openers, as well as the table of contents.

For the body copy I chose Palatino – a reliable, legible serif font family. 

For the chapter titles, page numbers, running heads, and table of contents I used Futura – a sans-serif family that contrasted well with Palatino. 

Here are a few sample pages from the interior of Judgment on Tartarus. Some of the techniques used in the page creation include: Paragraph Styles, Character Styles, Nested Character Styles, Text Variables, Auto-Numbering, Master Pages, and Table of Contents Styles

As I said before, I'm a big science fiction fan, so I am looking forward to getting a printed copy of the book to read. If you want to check it out, it's available for pre-order from Amazon for just $16.29.

PlanetGraham Design has completed the final printer PDFs for a project called McGraw-Hill's Math. It's a series of math workbooks for grades 6, 7 and 8, that will be published on March 11, 2011. The books are now available for pre-order from Amazon.com.

These math workbooks are primarily designed for students to use during the summer to sharpen their math skills. Each page consists of some instructional material, followed by exercises.

PlanetGraham designed the interior pages for McGraw-Hill's Math (6–8) and created all the templates used in production. The templates themselves were pretty sophisticated, involving several GREP Styles, Nested Character Styles, Text Variables, and other advanced techniques. The production of McGraw-Hill's Math also required extensive use of the InDesign plug-in InMath to generate fractions, equations, and other math-related formatting.

In addition to the design, PlanetGraham provided production on approximately 1/3 of the pages, from first pour, to final printer PDFs. PlanetGraham also assisted in the project management (along with Watch This Space, Inc.) to coordinate between production, proofreading, and art. All the technical art (graphs, charts, and figures) were created by Signe Nordin. Editorial services were provided by Skybridge Publishing.

I am looking forward to getting the printed copies in the next few months and I will post some sample interior pages as soon as it is permissible.