Book Cover Redesign
Raney
The goal of this project was to create a cover design for Raney by Clyde Edgerton. This is a cute, funny story from a local North Carolina based author. There are already many variations of covers for this novel, some of which I love. Many of them reference guitars because Raney and her husband play music together, but I wanted to do something different. I also wanted to avoid all illustrative elements and lean more on typography and color to convey the tone.
Process
Fun, warm, summer colors. There is a pivotal moment while the family eats watermelon at their reunion, so I thought of reds and greens.
Rough type choices representative of the rural setting.
Raney is a new bride so I also considered feminine, curly cursive, the kind a young girl may doodle on a notebook.
Rejected Designs
The novel mentions heat and the red clay that’s so prominent in this NC town.
When I first imagined a picnic blanket, I wanted to put an ant or a slice of watermelon on it, but something about the illustrations never felt quite right.
Lilies are symbolic of purity and chastity, two things that were very important to Raney. I liked this cover but it felt too serious for the tone of the novel.
This cover paid homage to my favorite existing cover of the book which uses a pink and green palette. The type makes it a little more playful, but I still felt it was too serious a style.
