NaNoWriMo Covers

TYPOGRAPHY \ COMPOSITION \ EDITORIAL

A Personal Project in Collaboration with the NaNoWriMo community.

Since these covers were not done for profit and were created very quickly, I made use of user generated imagery from Pexels, Unsplash, and Pixabay.

This was a passion project that met a need in one of the communities I’m active in.

I’m a hobby novelist who participates in the National Novel Writing Month challenge to write 50,000 words in one month. As a community we find ways to inspire and encourage each other. A book cover is a visual representation of a writer’s end goal and helps keep them motivated to complete their project.

Not everyone has the means or skillset to make their own cover, so I offered my talents and passion for design to my fellow writers. I set goals and challenges for myself while engaging with one of my communities.

I outlined a creative brief, posted it in the NaNoWriMo forums, and asked the writers to fill it out.

The creative brief worked well. I was able to capture the writer’s ideas and vision without sacrificing creative freedom. When extremely specific and fantastical requests were made that stretched beyond the scope of the project, I sent a note to redefine their expectations and discuss alternative imagery.

I challenged myself to find a balance between quantity and quality. In 7 weeks I designed 78 unique novel covers.

For each novel I came up with 3 separate ideas. Then I chose the 1 or 2 that I liked best and refined them. I enjoyed trying out styles prevalent in certain genres, but also let myself loose on experimentation.