Noble Design & Media

The Final art for the selected cover for the UK Market.

The selected cover, of this previous comp, as delivered. I punched up the colors used in the titling to catch the eye at small sizes, increasing readability.

I warmed the hue of the author names, lowered the hand to increase the air between names and title per the excellent Art Director notes. And added an attractive bright sticker aligned with the text column.

There is still room for other author designations, such as “Bestselling Author”, etc.

An Inside Graphics Moment:

In one of the comps for Hay House title on Tapping, I photographed Paul making an EFT gesture. The raw photo is on the left above. It took many attempts to get a good angle for a vertical cover crop and to have both of his hands photographed to be the same size with a 50mm lens.

A camera’s 16:9 image ratio is very different than a 6” x 9” book cover proportions. The corrected comp art on the right was achieve through many hours of careful re-proportioning and editing. You’ll notice the set of hands is much higher on his chest and yet still looks natural. Even though the focus has been blurred for the emphasis,  you may still see that the shirt edges, zipper dings, chocolate on lips, and shoulder wrinkles were perfected. Since the cover should be made to appeal to as many types of readers as possible, I also tried to smooth Paul out, not enough to call attention to that, but enough to make his age and ethnicity as neutral feeling as possible.

This sketch/comp uses the target icon larger and on center with the beginning of a concept for involving the main title into it.

All five designs were devised with plenty of white space to add author bugs and other call-outs, pull quotes, etc. as embellishments.

This is one of my personal choices for the book. So clean and inviting to read. The design reads itself. The target icon is the point of contact for another tapping concept.

Another way to show the concept of “tapping” was to depict a cascade of shapes across the cover.

The concept for this comp was to artfully feature one of the therapeutic EFT gestures photographically. There wasn’t time to schedule a pro-shoot so my handsome husband kindly let me photograph him for the comp.

I kept the focus crisp over the point of contact on his hand, while softly blurring the rest, for emphasis.

For my third cover assignment for Hay House, this title by rather well known (understatement) authors in the field of coaching, success, personal growth. This new title features powerful EFT techniques. I’m sure this will be a best-seller.

The concept in this comp was to suggest the idea of the power taking place with EFT techniques and the contact with fingertips with down-to-earth widely appealing imagery.

The photography is mine of my favorite hand model/husband.

The is the selected cover for the Mindful Nation title.

I felt the solid background with calm, simple text would convey a feeling of quiet dignity befitting the substance/topic/theme of its author.

In my second cover assignment for Hay House, six of the dozen comps delivered.

From my project notes:

Author: Congressman Tim Ryan
Qualities:

• Optimistic
• Washington
• Inspiring
• Hopeful
• Road map
• Slowing down
• Paying attention
• Inner awareness
• Dignified
• Quiet
• Heartland
• Folksy
• Warm
• Encouraging
• Sharing interactions

• Supported by scientific research
• “Help ourselves/help our country”

• Addresses pain management; schools; vets; businesses

I thought the chalk-drawn flag elements gave both a school-like metaphor as well as an interactive creativity.

I thought the close-up texture of the fabric weave on the flags gave a heightened sense of awareness to the subject.

I thought the solid background with calm, simple text gave a feeling of quiet dignity befitting the substance/topic/theme.

One of the FIVE Cover Concepts enthusiastically selected by Hay House’s Director of Creative and Print Production. I’m so elated.

I’m thrilled with the results and would love to design more titles for her!

Please scroll down to see the other four…

Context: The book by Laurent Gounelle was his first novel, originally published in France as a bestseller, now brought to the US by Hay House. In brief, It is about a man who travels to Bali and inexplicably sees a healer. He begins to discover that he wasn’t as happy in life as he thought. Once realized, it’s the journey of how he slowly begins to understand how to become at last truly happy.

I wanted to incorporate the story’s theme of the protagonist’s Balinese experience visually but to avoid any limitation of specific religious symbolism while doing so. The cover also needed to hit a good visual balance between appealing to both men and women readers of novels.