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YA

OCEANS DEEP

May 8, 2014 By Starla Huchton Leave a Comment

Oceans Deep cover

Oceans Deep boxed set

“Twelve Young Adult romance novels that celebrate sun, sea and love to support World Oceans Day 2014.

As authors, we know while the facts can change people’s minds, fiction can change their hearts. The proceeds from this box set will benefit World Oceans Day, an organization dedicated to celebrating the ocean and encouraging people to really think about what the oceans mean to them.

Comprised of young adult romances in a variety of genres including science fiction, fantasy, contemporary and mythology, the books all have one thing in common: they leave readers more in love with the ocean than they were before.

Together we can help ocean conservation efforts, one word, one page, one story at a time.” (via the press release)

I’ve been known, from time to time, to donate my design work to people and causes I can get behind. In this case, I saw an opportunity to help out an entire group of writers while helping to raise money for charity. Ten authors came together for this project, a 10 ebook boxed set, on sale June 8th through July 8th, and all proceeds from sales will go to support The Ocean Project. It’s an ambitious and incredible project, and I hope their efforts are extremely successful.

The group already had a solid idea of what they’d like to see for the cover, so the challenge for me was matching their vision to a design. Every element of this image is a separate object (background, girl, dolphins, jellyfish), and there was plenty of isolating and color tweaking going on to fit them all into one visual. The most difficult part was the typography, as fitting ten separate names on the cover, plus the tag line, could have easily overwhelmed the design. To keep the title from getting lost in the fray, I needed a brighter color to make it pop out from the background, and the green I settled on is certainly eye-catching. It’s not a color I would normally go for, but, in this case, it works.

One last element was needed for this amazing project, and that’s the graphic depicting a boxed set of books. Admittedly, I’d never done one before, so there was a bit of learning as I go involved there. I spent some time looking for Photoshop actions and tutorials, but, ultimately, I ended up building it all by hand and basing it off of what I was seeing in other digital boxed set graphics. You can see the results of that, as well as the individual covers for each included book, here:

Box Set Square

Authors included in this collection:

  • Lani Wendt Young – Telesa
  • Elle Strauss – Seaweed
  • Kristen Day – Forsaken
  • Karen Amanda Hooper – Tangled Tides
  • Amber Garr – Promises & Betrayal
  • Cheri Lasota – Artemis Rising
  • 
Heather Allen – Just Breathe
  • Nikki Godwin – Chasing Forever Down
  • Leigh Talbert Moore – Dragonfly & Undertow
  • Amy Evans – Clicks


You can add the box set to your TBR list on Goodreads now. To learn more about each of the authors, please click on their name on Goodreads, or above.  Keep track of the project on their tumblr: ocean-books.tumblr.com

Filed Under: All Posts, Portfolio Tagged With: Amber Garr, Amy Evans, book cover, book covers, charity, Cheri Lasota, design, Elle Strauss, Heather Allen, Karen Amanda Hooper, Kristen Day, Lani Wendt Young, Leigh Talbert Moore, Nikki Godwin, paranormal, Portfolio, romance, YA

FROM THE WRECKAGE

April 1, 2014 By Starla Huchton Leave a Comment

From The Wreckage by Michele G. Miller

From the Wreckage, by Michele G. Miller

 

“In a matter of minutes on a Friday night, I lost my school, my identity, my sweet, fearless brother, the security of my first love, my best friend, my town… everything as I knew it. Everything changed.

Minutes- that’s all it takes to change your entire life. How do you deal with that?”

For high school senior Jules Blacklin, surviving the storm is only the beginning. Faced with the new reality of her life, she must find a way to rise From the Wreckage and answer the question- how do you get back to normal, when everything that was normal is gone? (via Goodreads)

Mixing business with friendship doesn’t always work out, but, in this case, the results are incredible. I had the distinct pleasure of getting to know Michele Miller at UtopYA 2013, and she has since become one of the pillars of strength that composes the Fierce Five.

Michele worked overtime to find the exact right models to fit her vision for this book, and even found two sources of inspiration for the layout of this one. Taking cues from both a movie poster and another book’s cover she liked, she actually did a ton of the work for me on this one. It’s a real treat for me to work with a client that has such a clear vision of what they’d like to see, and it really makes my end of it effortless to pull it together.

I love the clean look of this one, and I think it really stands out amongst a lot of other YA covers out there. It’s a wonderful new project for Michele, and I know she can’t wait to share this book with the world!

Filed Under: All Posts, Portfolio Tagged With: book cover, book covers, contemporary, design, Michele G Miller, Portfolio, YA

NEXT YEAR THINGS WILL BE DIFFERENT

March 25, 2014 By Starla Huchton Leave a Comment

Next Year Things Will Be Different

Next Year Things Will Be Different, A Collection of Short Stories by Tyramir Ross, John Biscarner, J. C. Sayer, edited by Chris Forshner

This is a collection of YA short stories from Lemorn Literary Works. Book unreleased, but forthcoming. [Read more…] about NEXT YEAR THINGS WILL BE DIFFERENT

Filed Under: All Posts, Portfolio Tagged With: anthology, book cover, book covers, Chris Forshner, design, JC Sayer, John Biscarner, Lemorn Literary Works, Portfolio, Tyramir Ross, YA

SPRING MOON

December 7, 2013 By Starla Huchton Leave a Comment

Spring Moon by HRH Princess Sophie Audouin-Mamikonian

Spring Moon by HRH Princess Sophie Audouin-Mamikonian

“Amid the expansive plains of Montana, the Lykos Ranch stretches for miles. The inhabitants who live in near isolation from the outside world are members of the most powerful clan of werewolves in North America. Among them lives just one human: Indiana Teller.

Grandson of the clan’s leader and offspring of a werewolf father and a mysterious yet human mother, Indiana is rejected by his peers and heads to the University of Montana to find a normal life. Despite warnings from his grandparents, he falls in love with a beautiful human, Katerina.

Before too long, he is the victim of an accident that would have killed him had he not miraculously vanished at the moment of impact. Are these strange occurrences just chance or the machinations of a hidden enemy out to destroy him? Facing his destiny, Indiana will have to choose who to believe, and who to love.” (from the description from Entangled Publishing)

[Read more…] about SPRING MOON

Filed Under: All Posts, Portfolio Tagged With: book cover, book covers, Entangled Publishing, HRH Princess Sophie Audouin-Mamikonian, paranormal romance, Portfolio, Princess Sophie, Spring Moon, urban fantasy, YA

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