Book Covers with Photographs

all  designs by Daniel Will-Harris

I'm available for work  no matter where in the world you are. If you're  interested in having me work for you, just drop me a note.

While this cover may not seem photographic, it really is. Only the photo wasn’t taken with a camera, but with a scanner. I had the book author place his face directly on the scanner. I then autotraced his face to turn it into a kind of topographic map. I had the author watercolor wash the colors on, then scanned the results and created this layout. To read more about the process, click here.

One thing you learn as a  professional designer is that just because you know it's  good, and everyone you show it to thinks it's good  doesn't mean that the client will like it. In this case,  the editor couldn't stand the subtitle being above the  title (grow up), and the author wanted a CD instead of a  diskette. The whole composition had to change to move the  title, and while it was OK, it didn't have the same  impact. The CD filled with fire looked like a  "flaming bagel" (which is what the production  manager and I called it). Let's just say that the great  thing about having your own web site is that you can then  show people what something should have looked  like. I'm very pleased with it this way.  Typeface: Celestia from FontHaus.

Clive Barker can be  seen here looking as scary as the stuff he writes. The  little lasso scene at the bottom was taken from two  images in the book--I added the lasso because  I thought it was funny. Clive didn't have much of a  sense of humor, so the finished cover doesn't look at all  like this. Typeface: Rodrigo Xaviers Cavasos' (great  name, huh?) Phalanx Bold from FontHaus. Go to top...

Who said programmers  were geeks? Pictured is the author in front of his  collection of very rare type samples I printed and taped  onto the retaining wall next to my garage. Talk about a  sophisticated setup--but, as my friend Bill Blass always  says, "it just feels right." The photo used a  30 lpi line screen at a 12 degree angle, as did the  background which is actually day-glo yellow.  Typefaces: Zurich (Univers) Extended and Extra  Condensed from Bitstream. Go to top...

Here David Sharp's  mouth is isolated and presented using a 30 lpi line  screen. (It looks better on paper than it does on  screen.) Typefaces: All Zurich (Univers) Extended Black,  Extended, and Extra Condensed. Go to top...