The creation of the Intertwined Cover
From Art Director Erin Craig, on the Development of the Cover for Intertwined:
As an art director, I spend my time working on cover designs for various imprints within Harlequin, but when I was handed the role of directing cover design for our newest imprint, Harlequin TEEN, I was definitely excited to have the chance. In this particular case, it was the chance to create the cover for Intertwined by Gena Showalter.
For every cover we design we start the process with a meeting between Art, Editorial and Marketing. We discuss everything from the story-line details to character descriptions to comparable titles. From that point the Art Department takes over to further develop options for the cover. For Intertwined, I worked initially with three different designers in order to come up with different concepts, each having its own voice. We spent a lot of time researching what teenagers see, the magazines they read, movies and TV shows they watch, music they download, Web sites they visit, cell phones they use—all the types of cultural visual imagery they absorb. From there, we used our research to come up with a variety of concepts that illustrated the story:
The concepts are then presented to Editorial and Marketing who help us identify the strongest direction and concept.
For the cover of Intertwined, we were also able to gain feedback on the concept from our Harlequin TEEN Panel—a group of teens passionate about reading and willing to provide their point of view. As one panelist put it “it’s darker, and the white contrast draws you to it.” In the end, this concept seemed to win us all over: At that point we needed to bring the cover to life.
I wanted to work with a photographer and type designer who were younger and could relate more closely to the subject matter. I had worked with photographer Regina Garcia in the past and felt that she had the sophistication of a seasoned photographer—able to deliver great shots—but she also had the funk and spunk of a young soul who could work with the younger model and get him to deliver the feeling we were trying to achieve. With the concept approved we started to discuss the finer points of the shooting process. The talent was a key piece for this cover. We needed the right teenager to portray Aden Stone’s role—a model with the ability to take direction, intensity in the eyes and the right look to match the character’s description.
On shoot day I worked together with the photographer and the stylist to decide which outfits we liked.
Post work was done in Photoshop to increase the overall drama of the cover—in this case we wanted to give the sense of otherworldliness with a lot of intensity.
For the title type I wanted to do something fresh and funky, something that would capture the attention of the reader. My inspiration came from a combination of skateboard graphics, tattoos and metal band lettering. I worked with Chad Roberts Design to come up with the lettering style. We started with a design that was quite complex. The lettering took more than one month and a dozen variations to get right, balancing legibility and graphic style.
Overall, this cover came together really well with the help of a lot of different people. I hope you feel the same way, too!
—Erin Craig, Art Director for Harlequin TEEN, Harlequin Enterprises Limited
Visit the books page on Gena’s Young Adult website: Intertwined
I think you did an amazing job on this Erin! Reading more about how it came about was very interesting…
wow this is really cool!
btw im in love with the cover, great job!
and it’s really cool that we get to know all the process
AmAZING!
Wow, who knew all that was involved in creating a cover for a book! That’s pretty amazing! Great job
It’s funny, you always love a good cover, but I have never thought in my head to give credit to the person who did it. I think it can make or break a book. This one is super! Great work!!
Wow, Erin you did a GREAT job! Love it. Makes me want to pick the book up, even if I didn’t read Gena’s books! Great Job, looks like you picked a Job that your Fantastic at!!
Wow…I know I’m not the first one to say that but WOW!!! I honestly never realized what all went into the planning of a cover. It makes you appreciate all the efforts and hard work everyone puts into the books we love to read. Thanks Erin (and others) for all your hard work!
Love the cover and really enjoyed learning more about the complex process of cover art.
interwined is positivly sin-sational
I loved the cover. Its what drew me to the book. I didn’t even relize that it was for young teens until I got on the website itself. fter looking at the other covers..I think this was deffinatly the best choice.
I love the cover and feel that it really captures the mood of the story. Not only is it eye-catching, it’s a great reflection of the contents. Thanks for showing us the process behind its creation.
The model is cute! it was very hard for me to picture Aden before, but now it’s no problem. Thank you!
The cover was what actually drew me to the book, which I’m glad because I LOVE the book. The cover and story is fantabulous, makes me appreciate that I actually bought the book instead of just checking it out at the library.
I find it incredibly fascinating to see how the book cover was actually designed, and to see how much care, effort and thought in general was put into the overall process. Really, really interesting and I think all that effort most certainly paid off. I’m going to see if my school librarian will order the book for our library so more people can get into the series
The cover was the reason why I picked up the book. I think that the dude is hot and also that it was a real great cover to choose for Intertwined. I loved it!