Pass the Bubbly

Going into this project, the author had a very clear vision for her cover art, asking for “two hands cheering/clinking glasses with fizzing and bubbles coming out of the glasses.” She also requested a limited color palette of blues, yellows, and white. With this in mind, I opted for an illustrated cover instead of using stock photography. I began to conceptualize with some thumbnail sketches and used Procreate to digitize from there.

For the first proof of the front cover, I pitched two different options featuring the same illustration. One option featured a classy sans font and a white and gold colorway, while the other used an elegant serif and a blue background. The author ultimately decided to combine the blue background from the second concept and the sans font from the first concept.

As soon as the cover art was finalized, I knew that I wanted to make the page design feel just as playful. Using the champagne bubble assets that I created for the cover, I applied a subtle grayscale gradient to signal the beginning of new chapters and sections. By keeping the graphics on the lighter, simpler side, each transitional page served as a complement to the bold headings and subheadings.

Once everything was reviewed and approved by the author, I exported the final files and passed them along to our distribution team. A year after its release, it’s evident that readers have been empowered by Melina’s words and advice. I’m so glad that this fun and bubbly manuscript is reflected in its cover design!