Design book jackets for a historical fiction trilogy, about the American Revolutionary War.
After designing a logo for my client Tracey, aka T.J. London (the Revolutionary Author), she asked me to design the book covers and jackets for her Rebels and Redcoats Saga. Honored, I started reading her manuscript for the first book in the series, ‘the Tory’. We both felt it was important to represent the protagonist of the saga, Captain John Carlisle, on the covers. In order to create mystery and provide insight into the mood of the story, I utilized dramatic lighting, antique coloring, and I cropped into the image revealing only the protagonist’s strong jawline, his stance, and the period attire. I also included a subtle interaction with Dellis, another leading character from the saga, who is minimally represented on the first two covers by only being able to see her hands and arms. For the third cover, The Turncoat, you no longer see Dellis, and instead you see two sides of Captain Carlisle, psychologically pulling himself apart, representing his duality of conscience in the plot of the story.
Period costuming was paramount to capturing these concepts. So, Ms. London leased the costumes from a theater company in New York. She also asked her friend Brian, an avid hockey player, and very patient and cooperative guy, to model as the protagonist. He agreed, and we shot the cover in my studio at the end of 2017. The Tory was self-published in 2018, and after the release we began working on the other two books, combining the work of both books in a single photoshoot to save Ms. London time and money. The second book, The Traitor was also published in 2018. The Turncoat is scheduled to be released on May 24, 2019.
It has been a real joy working with Ms. London on this project. You can find her books and ebooks at several locations including Amazon, Barnes and Nobel, IBOOKS, and Kobo.
Read more on my blog post.
Steve was a pleasure to work with. He’s fast, efficient and his work is nothing short of inspired. My logo was just beautiful and exactly what I was looking for, and the covers for my books were absolute masterpieces. I highly recommend him and his work. It was a pleasure doing business with him.
TJ London
