This is my fictional book cover for the "Seven Year Slip" by Ashley Poston. The process of creating this cover was extensive and involved several tools within GIMP as described below in my narrative.
I started with a photograph of vintage kitchen tiles with drawing designs on them. These vintage tiles serve as a nod to the kitchen as a significant backdrop and context to the interactions between the main character, Clementine, and her love interest, Iwan. At the start of the book, Clementine inherits her aunt’s apartment after her death. Her aunt alludes to a “time traveling” nature to the apartment, which Clementine soon discovers is real when she accidentally travels back in time 7 years and meets Iwan. Iwan is an aspiring chef whom Clementine quickly starts falling in love with. Throughout the book, she accidentally travels back and forth between the two time periods. However, whenever she is 7 years in the past, Iwan always cooks a meal to share with Clementine. Additionally, the yellow from the tiles serves an important nod to both the character’s shared favorite color (yellow) as well as Clementine’s nickname, “yellow,” given to her by Iwan. I rotated the tile image 90 degrees clockwise to orient it as a book cover. I then used rectangle select to copy selections of the plain tiles to overlay the vintage drawings present on the background photo to allow a new selection of tile images. I then re-ordered the layers to allow new images to overlap the blank tiles I created. Using the empty tiles, I inserted other images to highlight key aspects of the book.
First, I found a hand-drawn study of a couple (Armando Martires’s image) and used the scissor tool to remove the white background from the edges of the colored marker. Then, using “oilify”, I made the artwork appear more painted and aged. Given the story is a romance between a time-traveling publicist and an aspiring chef, I wanted to hint at the romance on the front cover using this image.
Then, I found a photo of a lemon pie (found on public domain), which thematically serves in the book as the representation of Iwan’s perfect meal - a reflection of fond memories and sharing in food - found in the recipe passed down to Iwan from his grandfather. I resized this image and used ellipse select, followed by invert and “Ctrl+x” to remove the background of the image and keep the image of the pie slice on the plate. I then used the cartoon effect to add darkened lines to give the image a “drawn on” appearance on the tile. I also used the “oilify” filter to further give the image a “painted” appearance.
Then, I found an image of an artist’s tools, including a watercolor palette (Denise Chan’s image). I cropped the image and used the smart scissor tool to remove the background and leave behind the watercolor palette. I then used the cartoon filter and the oilify filter to match the “drawn on” and “painted on” appearance of the other tile images. During the story, it is discovered that Clementine loves watercolor painting, but gave this up over time due to pressures from her work. Throughout the book, she struggles with the concept of finding her passion and doing work that is expected of her. She eventually rediscovers her love of watercolor painting in the broader context of obtaining the courage to follow her own passions in life.
The last image I found was of a hand-drawn sunflower (rawpixel.com and Biodiversity Heritage Library Botanical Plate image). I used the smart scissor tool to remove the white background, then used “oilify” to match the painted-on appearance of the other images used on the tiles. Given this was already hand-drawn, no cartoon filter was needed. In the book, the main character describes spending every birthday sitting in the Van Gogh exhibit with a specific fondness for his study of sunflowers. A key moment in the book describes when she is sitting in this exhibit on her birthday after finally embracing change to seek her passion in life. In that moment, she reconnects with her love interest. Not only does the sunflower continue the yellow theme of the book and the overall book cover, but it also serves as a link to this moment in the story.
Finally, I put the title in a text box using the font “Shell Normal” and bolded the font. Overall, the impression seemed reminiscent of other font styles used in “retro” show titles and book covers. I similarly used a bolded Serif font for the author’s name to serve as a contrast to the script used for the title.
Thematically, I wanted to create a book cover that highlighted key emotional aspects of the book and hinted at a romance without spoiling the book itself at first glance. Additionally, I wanted to use retro-themed pieces, such as the font and the painted tiles, as a way to incorporate the time travel element that is central to the plot of the story. As a final touch-up, I used the color temperature tool to add warmth to the overall color palette to match the creams and yellows of the background tile, as well as further give an “aged” appearance to the overall composition. I also made adjustments to the shadows, highlights, and brightness of the individual images to further blend them into the tiles to give them a more cohesive look.
Steven Mileham, The Tiles That Time Forgot 2, copyrighted, license CC BY-NC 2.0, Feb 7 2009, obtained via www.flickr.com/photos/smileham/3266486410/in/photolist-2o... to an external site..
Denise Chan, watercolours, copyrighted, license CC BY-SA 2.0, June 13 2009, via www.flickr.com/photos/denn/3621804355/in/photolist-6w3GfF... to an external site.
Armando Martires, Couple: Study with Markers, copyrighted, license CC BY-NC-SA 2.0, Jan 15 2010, via flickr.com/photos/amartires/4277392566/in/photolist-7vYKM... to an external site.
Biodiversity Heritage Library Botanical plates and rawpixel.com, Hand drawn sunflower. Original from Biodiversity Heritage Library. Digitally enhanced by rawpixel.com, copyrighted, license CC BY 2.0, Feb 12 2021, via www.flickr.com/photos/vintage_illustration/50933692678/in... to an external site.
This is my logo for a fictional dog walking company called "Walking with Love" that was created using InkScape.
For this fake company, I wanted to create a simplistic logo that highlighted animal love at its core. Additionally, I wanted to ensure that the logo itself hinted at some aspect of dog-walking, such as the use of a leash. With these design elements in mind, I created a pawprint with a central leash looped into the shape of a heart. I kept a black and red color palette for this logo to give it simplicity as well as highlight the association of “red” and “heart-shape” with love. The pawprint helps to highlight the animal-centric nature of the company without needing to know the name or role. Since this is a dog-walking company that emphasizes animal love at its core, I wanted to ensure the logo would also portray the fun nature of walking with pets. To highlight this "fun" side of the company, I picked fonts that added a whimsical and handwritten touch.
To create the logo, I first used the star/polygon tool and adjusted the nodes to 3. I rounded the corners and adjusted the spoke ratio to create the base of the paw shape. I then used the ellipse tool to create the individual toe pads for the pawprint. I was able to adjust the size of the two side toe pads to create a more paw-print-like appearance to the design. Once I was happy with the appearance of the pawprint, I used the “union” tool to keep the object together. Next, I created a leash that looped into a heart inside the pawprint I had made. To achieve this, I first created a heart by making a rectangle, rotating it to 45 degrees, and then duplicating it. I moved the second rectangle to the opposite 45 degrees and used the “union” tool to create a blocky heart-like shape. I then smoothed some of the nodes to create a more perfect heart-like shape. I moved the center-most node up to round out the appearance of the heart. I then used the fill and stroke tool to remove the fill and leave a red border. I adjusted the thickness of the border by increasing the width. I then used the ellipses tool to create a leash handle. I used the same fill and stroke tool to similarly remove the fill and leave a red border. I then used the calligraphic tool to draw the leash from the border of the left side of the paw and connect it to the heart, as well as connect the leash handle to the remainder of the heart-shaped leash. I also used the calligraphy tool to create the loop in the center of the heart to give it a sense of movement, similar to how a leash would naturally loop on itself rather than stop at distinct corners. I adjusted the nodes of the shapes and the calligraphy brush strokes to give the appearance of one smooth loop of leash. Finally, I added the company name, “Walking with Love,” in a bolded Segoe print to give an essence of whimsy. I used a slightly smaller unbolded Segoe print for the company description “Professional Dog Walkers” to further clarify the company’s role without detracting from the overall design. Finally, I went back and added gradients to some of the pieces of the leash to give a 3D appearance of the leash looping on itself.