Limping Wolf, Book & publication covers

Brief

Limping Wolf (Hromi Vuk) is a novel by Nenad Mitrović, part of the Lords of Nav series: a historical thriller with elements of fantasy, set at the beginning of the 19th century around the uprising against the Turks. The author asked for four things on the cover without exception, a wolf, a cloaked stranger with his hood up, a compass and a sword, all on a blood-red background with a dark forest showing through. The point of all of it was to tell a reader at a glance what genre the book belongs to and what kind of world is waiting inside.

Approach

The work was done strictly in Photoshop, and every element was retouched on its own before anything was assembled: the wolf, the stranger, the sword, the compass and the forest were each finished separately, and only then composited into the final image.

Every required element got its own zone instead of competing for the middle. The wolf holds the left half, head in three-quarter profile with its gaze off to the side, the sword runs down the centre as a vertical divider with light breaking on the blade, the hooded stranger occupies the right, and the compass anchors the bottom edge. Behind them the red forest is pushed dark towards the corners so the gold title keeps its contrast in the centre. The title is set in a serif with gold gilding and a fine outline that holds up against the busy artwork, with the series name above it in smaller caps. The same composition carries around the wrap: the spine repeats the title vertically and the back opens a calm dark panel for the author photo, the biography, the blurb and a review quote.

Result

A cover on which all four requested elements read at thumbnail size, in an online bookshop as well as on a shelf. The artwork was extended to the spine, the back and a roll-up banner for launch events, so the book and the material standing next to it at a reading are recognizably the same thing.