• £105

• 31 designs

• 6 designers

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Book Cover Design Brief

Elegant book cover needed for a contemporary coming-of-age mystery novel set in London. The thrust of the book is centred on the relationship between two fifteen-year-old boys - Nathan (who is white) and Ryan (mixed white and black Caribbean). Nathan is the main character, and he is the outcast from school and part of a gang, and he entangles Ryan into his crazy off-kilter world (by stealing back a lawnmower) so that Ryan will help Nathan to get the girl from school - Stephanie - to fall in love with him. Stephanie, also a main character, although at first hating Nathan eventually grows to love him, so forming the love story part of the novel. This stealing back of the lawnmower sets off a chain of events that will haunt them all into adulthood. Nathan's life is eventually thrown off course when his eight-year-old black friend (Aidy) disappears. The first half of the novel is set in school, and features gang-related trouble the main characters get into. There is a compelling love story too. The story is about making the wrong decisions that will affect all the characters going into adulthood. A sense of doom overshadows events and are fully resolved in a chilling climax.
The key relationship is between Nathan and Ryan, but it's Nathan whose life is most affected by the tragedy of his eight-year-old black friend (Aidy) going missing, after which he turns his back on exams, Stephanie, his parents, and a promising future to walk the streets of London. Nathan has a quirky and philosophic turn of mind, such as coming up with weird theories about Star Wars. The angle you could take for the book cover could centre on the disappearance of the little black boy or Nathan himself, the outcast from school and society, who in effect also disappears from a promising future. Perhaps Stephanie (who is white) could also be featured in there somewhere. It could feature London school life, London streets or the missing little boy linked to a snowy ending that also features a large oak tree. The book is contemporary/literary, so must be elegant, rather than a down and dirty gang/crime novel - so a blurry silowhette of a boy against a gloomy sky next to an oak tree, or just a blurred street view through a rainy window at twilight with flared headlights, or an abstract pattern that denotes movement or change, or an illustrated or digitally painted picture of something abstract and minimalist would be great.

Target Market(s)

Fans of thought-provoking, philosophic literary fiction

Industry/Entity Type

Book Publisher

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Font styles to use

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Look and feel

Each slider illustrates characteristics of the customer's brand and the style your logo design should communicate.

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Requirements

Must have

• Either a white boy, or an eight-year-old black kid, but I want the look of a digital painting or illustration. Perhaps the oak tree or a blurred and rainy street view through a window with rain on it and flared headlights. Would prefer something illustrated, abstract, or digitally painted, or minimalist, rather than a clear-looking photo of a person or people. If a character is featured they could be out of focus, off-kilter or framed weirdly. (See jpegs for examples of other books).

Nice to have

• Something digitally painted or illustrated (See jpegs attached for other book examples)

Should not have

• Just a straight forward medium shot of a good-looking boy staring at the camera, like in a fantasy or YA book.

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Files

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