Working Dad – writing journey part II: Deciding on the best concept for the book cover design

 

After I finished the seventh draft of the book, I sent it to my editor.  I had a few weeks before she would come back with her feedback so I started to work on the book cover design.   There were three main cover ideas that I had, I then spent the next few weeks honing in on which book cover design concept I was going to take further.

 

Book Cover Design Concept A: Put your own Oxygen Mask on First

I had been travelling a lot for business, infact every week I was catching a flight early on Monday morning and flying back late on Friday night.  On the journey I kept seeing the same image from the inflight safety card again and again.  This became a strong visual motif for my book, the idea that before you can help anyone else you must first help yourself.

Up until the point where I started seriously focusing on the cover I was pretty sure that I would be going forward with this concept.  But as I dived deeper into the book and put time aside to focus solely on the cover other concepts began to emerge.

 

Book Cover Design Concept B: Super Dad

One of the things that I discovered while writing this book is that a dad has to be so many things both at work and at home, really it is by far and away the biggest job any man can do.  I came up with the idea of Superdad and set about mocking up some concepts for a cover based on the idea of Superdad.

Note: The images are from iStockPhoto, I downloaded the comps which are used for proof of concept purposes – shown here for educational/research purposes only.  Final image for book was purchased.

 

Book Cover Design Concept C: Working Dad

The third concept that I came up with was the idea of a working dad leaving the office to spend time with his child/children.  I wanted the idea to be less about being super and more about balancing time between career and being there for your child.

 

 

Note: The images are from iStockPhoto, I downloaded the comps which are used for proof of concept purposes – shown here for educational/research purposes only.  Final image for book was purchased.

 

So those were the three options which I debated long and hard over, I consulted mainly between my editor, book designer and some designers I was working with about which would hold the most resonance for the target audience – and then ignored thier advice and went for what I wanted lol 🙂.

 

To find out which concept I ended up choosing tune into the next blog post where I talk about getting a designer on board?

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Click here to see my previous post writing journey part I: Why I’m writing a book.

Thanks so much for reading.

Farhan