As an avid book thrifter and collector, I’m accustomed to wandering unorganized shelfs and skimming spines. Let’s be honest; we all judge a book by its cover, and I’m a firm believer that the book cover needs to really encompass the world inside.
The Hundred Oaks series is a favorite of mine because of their balance of charm and sweet romance against bigger issues like grief or sexism. The published covers of the books (seen below) really focus on the romance element, but I feel because the books are more than that, they deserve covers that represent these heroines working thought their problems. Meanwhile the covers still need to be marketable to teens and let the consumer know there is a sports element throughout the books.
To accomplish all that, I started with a bright and fun color palette inspired by the original covers. Using the flat bold colors as the backgrounds is eye-catching and lets a younger audience know it's for them. I wanted to balance the more thick san-serif font with a girly script to represent that the books include both sporty, traditionally male, elements AND a more female aimed romance. The illustrations tell a viewer that these books are about overcoming challenges.
