I redesigned the book cover for Nora Robert's The Obsession. I was randomly given a book and a short synopsis from another student, and tasked with creating a new book cover with the information I was given and a bit of online research. In case you've never heard of the book before, here's how the back cover describes it:
"Naomi Bowes lost her innocence the night she followed her father into the woods. In freeing the girl trapped in the root cellar, Naomi revealed the horrible extent of her father's crimes and made him infamous. No matter how close she gets to happiness, she can't outrun the sins of Thomas David Bowes.
Now a successful photographer living under the name Naomi Carson, she has found a place that calls to her, a rambling old house in need of repair, thousands of miles away from everything she's ever known. Naomi wants to embrace the solitude, but the kindly residents of Sunrise Cove keep forcing her to open up--especially the determined Xander Keaton.
Naomi can feel her defenses failing, and knows that the connection her new life offers is something she's always secretly craved. But the sins of her father can become an obsession, and, as she's learned time and again, her past is never more than a nightmare away."
These are the existing covers for the book. If you read the synopsis, its very clear to see that this is a dark story, and frankly, I wasn't getting "murder in a root cellar" from these covers (the middle one does a good job being ominous, though).
This is how I re-imagined the book cover, taking a darker approach than the existing ones. I chose to highlight the root cellar door Naomi opened in the woods. It is meant to give the reader the illusion of open the door for themselves. It's subtle enough to not give away any major plot points but is important enough so that the reader understands it as they progress through the story. The camera overlay represents not only her passion for photography, but also the grim discoveries she makes in both the woods and in the future. It is situated sideways on the cover to add drama and to make it seem more panicked and afraid.
I photo composited everything on the book cover, using my own photos. I used a wall from my closet, paint patterns from my ceiling, a drawer handle from the laundry room, and several leaves I found outside my front door. I challenged myself to combine these images because I found that in our design curriculum, we weren't required at any point to utilize photoshop's features past making mock-ups. I wanted to be able to showcase my photoshop skills in my portfolio.
