GRAPHIC DESIGNER | ILLUSTRATOR
BLACK LIBRARY
During my time working for Black Library publishing house, I designed a variety of books in various formats including limited editions, paperbacks, royal hardbacks and series specials.
Below is a couple of samples of some of the limited editions that have been published and sold worldwide. All cover designs were illustrated by myself and the artwork is vectored using Adobe Illustrator for the purposes of print and manufacture. All book materials and chosen treatments where specified by myself, which I would then liaise with the supplier to get the best quality product and finish. Every detail from choosing the colour of the book ribbon, right through to the colour of tissue paper that the books would be encased in was carefully chosen and curated.
PROJECT TYPE
-Book cover design
-Vector illustration
- Packaging design
ROLE
Graphic Designer / Illustrator
TOOLS USED
- Adobe Photoshop
- Adobe Illustrator
- Adobe InDesign
YEAR
2020 - 2024
BOOK DESIGN
THE INFINITE AND THE DIVINE
The original Infinite and Divine story is one of the best-selling titles that Black Library has released, and a decision was made to release a limited-edition cover for this title.
Due to the sheer popularity of the original title, there was a lot of emphasis to make this a premium product that would be worthy of any collector’s shelf. It was my job to design an original concept that was unique, premium in quality as well as being accurate and sympathetic to the IP. This project was heavily design led and incorporated bespoke internal page furniture as well as premium features like the printed fore-edge incorporating the original artwork and the use of a metallic screen-print and a metallic vinyl book cloth to help create a unique cover design.
The final result is a striking, impactful book design which will be worthy of any collectors bookshelf.
INITIAL SKETCHES & DESIGN DEVELOPMENT
A key feature that I wanted to incorporate in the design is the ‘decaying worlds’ in the spine which is key to the narrative of the story. The main idea was a celestial inspired design with the idea of all elements interconnecting with circuits etc.
PAGE FURNITURE SKETCHES
I was heavily influenced by designing bespoke lettering art but in a Necron style which would feature on each chapter start including the metallic pantone green colour. Most of the lettering styles were becoming too busy or too heavy weight. Necron has a rich amount of IP and iconography to draw inspiration from.
After showing the design team, it was suggested to steer away from heavily illustrated lettering and look at designing frames for the internal page furniture. The chosen design taken to develop further is based on a circuity design creating an overall design.
This was the concept chosen to develop further.
CHAPTER START FRAME DEVELOPMENT
The original idea for the chapter starts frames was for each frame to break up as the story continues to reflect how the worlds are decaying within the narrative, but the idea soon changed to extending the design to all pages.
As the page furniture developed, I realised that the broken heavy-set frames were still too prominent on the page and would be distracting for the reader. So I stripped the frame back and came up with the idea to continue the circuit frame throughout the entire book.
The idea is that the circuits seamlessly continue throughout the story where the only big change is the act pages where the pantone colour is inversed, so it gives the reader a clear visual indicator that there is a step change in the narrative.
Overall, the final design is impactful and visually more aligned with the cover design as well.
ENDPAPER DESIGN DEVELOPMENT
COVER DESIGN DEVELOPMENT
I wanted the spine to be just as impactful when sat face out on the shelf. My original idea of incorporating the decaying worlds in a modern way simply wasn't working, so I came up with alternate design options playing around with patterns and circuits and keeping the hierarchy of book title and the author names simple.
At this stage in the cover development, we were still negotiating with the supplier regarding incorporating metal die-cast elements to the design. This way we could still get the metal elements giving that premium luxury element to the cover.
This was the final concept chosen to develop further. The main changes were to incorporate the circuit inspired spine along with the two main Necron symbols on the front and back cover. The other key design feature of this book was the use of a metallic screenprint as the main cover treatment along with a heavy deboss on a metallic vinyl. The combinations of these treatments had not been used by Black Library before and so was a bold design decision, but the result is a distinctive book cover.
THE LION
A long-awaited miniature release was upcoming within the wider business and Black Library had a long-awaited novel as part of the overall offering.
This was a highly confidential and sensitive project within the business and this limited-edition cover needed to visually synonymous with the miniature being released, so IP accuracy was crucial when it came to my design approach. As this was my first limited edition title, I opted for more classical style as this seemed fitting for the character. Key themes were gothic archways, lions and weaponry, some stylistic themes came from medieval references. I wanted to keep the colour palette simple and use two screen prints and a foil as treatments along with a four-colour printed fore-edge.
The result was a huge hit with customers worldwide, only 2,000 copies were produced and sold out online within minutes of release.
INITIAL SKETCHES & DESIGN DEVELOPMENT
THE WITCH HUNTER'S HANDBOOK
The opportunity arose for me to do a full cover design for the Witch Hunter’s handbook which is an IP staple and much loved by loyal fans. I lead the full design process right from writing the specification for the product, through to the packaging design and sign off. Honouring the original design, I wanted the design to pay homage to the original cover which was produced in the 90’s but to have a modern twist. The brief was to make the product an ‘in-world artefact’. Drawing on inspiration from old spell books, antique books and relics I had a good base of inspiration to start from.
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Based on my research I wanted the cover material to feel rustic and old, which lead me to pick a rough looking leather texture which had not been used in previous books in the Age of Sigmar range. I then chose to pick a screen-print rather than a foil as screen-prints are better at showing up finer detail during the printing process. I started with hand-drawn rough concepts of the cover composition as well as hand-drawn bespoke character busts. From these sketches I was able to get the base composition for the cover. Then I took this into Adobe Illustrator and started to make the vector artwork which would be needed to help the printing process later on.
The final design is an elegant, unique IP focused, in-world product which far exceeded any of our expectations with its sales.
SCREENPRINT
DEBOSS
PACKAGING
FINAL ARTWORK
The final illustrations for the four characters were a copy of the original illustrations within the chapter starts of the original text. IP wise these were a safer option as they were already approved by the wider business. I added subtle details of the characters ‘breaking out of the frame’ just to give the illusion that the characters are coming at you and feeling dynamic in the overall composition. The Hammer of Sigmar was a more detailed drawing by myself as all previous assets were fairly loose and not appropriate for manufacturing onto this particular product. The flintlock style pistols are key to generic witch-hunters and their iconography.
SHADOW OF THE EIGHTH
Inspired by a mixture of propaganda style posters and influenced by impressionist artwork and mixed media I knew this would was a good starting point for the design process. During the design I was very much inspired by rugged textures, this informed the choice of hessian cloth for the book cover itself. The reasoning behind this was the hessian cloth is unpretentious and isn’t trying to present itself as pretty or polished in anyway.
Having Minka’s portrait as the focus was a reference back to the very first Minka book “The place of Pain and Healing” this is still one of the most iconic pieces of art that is associated with Minka herself and so it seemed fitting to incorporate a more graphical approach with this illustration for this cover. The front border frame composition reflects the core Cadian symbol and the battle tank facing forwards is to help give that idea of propaganda effect imagery.
The result is a bold, striking, and effective design that is purely unique to Minka Lesk as a character and is different to any previous limited edition within the Black Library range.
INITIAL SKETCHES & DESIGN DEVELOPMENT
HONOURBOUND
The design brief for the title was to create an elegant and typographical cover containing elements to the design that were unmistakably associated with the character Severina Raine. One of the most popular titles that Black Library has published, the limited edition is highly anticipated by loyal fans and so the specification and design needed to feel premium enough without exceeding production costs.
Inspired by my research, I started playing around with various types of filigree with the end goal in mind that the filigree will be in a gold foil. Using the natural shapes of the filigree to help me with the overall composition of the cover and keeping this in mind. Key elements such as the sword and las-gun helped to inform the rest of the design and build hierarchy between elements. The typography was to be simple and elegant with the filigree pattern doing the talking. The idea being that for the viewer to look closer they will see more rather than just a decorative cover. Colour-ways wise the cover has a limited colour palette of red, black and gold. Many books within black library usually have black covers however offering the alternative of a red leather-bound book instead of black was a strong alternative, however for this particular character it was decided that this did not represent the character well enough. The final result is a bold, elegant design that is distinctive to the character and story arc, as well as being classy and chic within the wider Black Library offering
INITIAL SKETCHES & DESIGN DEVELOPMENT
