Blog - Jenneth Leed

Cover and Logo Design for Into The Forest

JennethOctober 10, 2022Book Covers, DesignLeave a Comment

I’ve got a big project breakdown for you today. This was a super fun cover that had a lot of cool pieces that came with it.

This actually was a dream come true in some ways. In grad school, I did a whole series deliberately focusing on what Red Riding Hood would look like as different genres, so when Jennifer emailed me and asked if I would be willing to do a real Red Riding Hood retelling, (which could can purchase on her website and Amazon) I was stoked. I bought myself a new font and CGI bushes for this one (I was tired of cutting out unimpressive bush photos from stock websites).

This also happens to be the first book where I pull a classic Kirk DouPonce and feature myself on my own cover (my friend didn’t want to pose for me). And if you had told twelve-year-old Jenneth that she was going to grow up and be a model, she would have laughed you right out of the room.

I also was able to do a quick design for Jennifer’s publishing name, En Pointe Press, which we added to the back. En Pointe is a reference to ballet, while also meaning “on point” so the swoosh at the end of the publisher’s name reflects both a ballet foot, and a point.

Cover Design for Fire Flight

JennethOctober 8, 2022Book Covers, Design2 Comments

I got a fun batch of fun speculative fiction covers recently, and this was no exception. Coincidently, I met the author over a local writer’s Zoom call in the middle of the pandemic, then met her in person at the annual Realm Makers conference in St. Louis. For her upcoming collection of short stories, she asked if I would design the cover, which I eagerly jumped at.

This cover was unique in that the author decided to print it through Minibük, which is a (Swedish?) company that prints tiny volumes that are only a few inches tall and easy to pass out as table favors at book conventions. The featured stories are connected to her larger story world, so it was a good way to introduce people to some of her characters and lore.

I bought myself a new font (as usual, because I have no self control) and hunted for stock photography that could depict a main scene from one of her stories. (There’s dragons in it, so how can I not play with fire??)

Illustration for “The Graveyard Shift” Radio Drama

JennethJune 25, 2022Artwork, DesignLeave a Comment

I had the pleasure of illustrating the cover for “The Graveyard Shift,” a one-episode radio drama from Katie Haughton and her audiobook podcast, Katiez Korner, with talent from Makayla Sanchez.

Here’s a little bit about the episode:

When Marty, a jaded maid at a rundown motel, gets stuck in the rain with a young coworker, she resigns herself to a late evening of unwanted optimism, unrealistic dreams, and cheap watercolor paints. But when the conversation shifts to more serious matters, Marty realizes she might have misjudged her quirky work partner.

Interior Layout for Drosselmeyer: The Watcher’s Realm

JennethJune 23, 2022DesignLeave a Comment

I had a new challenge recently, and for once, it didn’t involve designing a book cover (that was handled by the talented 100 Covers team, whose work you can see below). Instead, I was tasked with creating the interior design for a full-length novel and reflowable ebook—and to match it with its previous book in the soon-to-be trilogy.

Cover Design for All I Want For Christmas Is Nukes

JennethJune 6, 2022Book Covers, DesignLeave a Comment

When Ben Wolf asked me to design a cover for a spin-off novella of his Santa Saves Christmas series (in which Santa fights zombie reindeer, raptors, and possibly Cthulhu) I jumped on the opportunity. I’ve been trying to diversify my cover portfolio, and my fiction was lacking—plus, it’s Ben Wolf’s Christmas series. There’s a puffin. There’s fighting Putin. There’s insanity.

Plus I got to build Chernobyl for the cover.

The biggest challenge was making the cover match in style and color to the renowned Kirk DouPonce, who designed the Santa trilogy and is a far more experienced designer than I am. My first attempt had all the right elements, but when Ben pushed me to really pop the colors into an almost comic-book level of saturation, the project really turned into something cool.

Cover Design for ‘Flight to the Fairy Meadow’

JennethJune 4, 2022Book Covers, DesignLeave a Comment

This was a speed design I did for a local Pensacola author. She needed an immediate and simple cover for her ebook and specifically asked the type to be “fancy.” I just bought myself a coveted and extremely executive typeface for a BARGAIN STEAL and was desperate to try it out. (This was, of course, before they slapped it up on Adobe Fonts for us users to take advantage of for free…I’m trying not to be too bitter about that.) It’s a gorgeous font with a gazillion alternates—and it happens to be the same font as Stephanie Garber’s Caraval series, just as a fun fact.

Even though the design job was extremely quick, I’m overall satisfied with how it turned out. You can get ahold of a copy on Amazon.

Cover Design for HAVOK Season 6: Casting Call

JennethApril 5, 2022Book Covers, DesignLeave a Comment

Shortly after finishing college, I joined the team at Havok Publishing as a senior graphic designer. Havok is a source of daily flash fiction covering a range of genres, from mystery to science fiction to comedy to thriller to fantasy. Each story is told in 1,000 words or fewer, and every one of them fits within a season’s theme. It’s a fantastic place to submit fiction and gain writing credentials—and even if your story isn’t accepted, the editorial team gives thorough feedback that can help you improve your writing.

While working with other designers on what we call “story covers” for published flash fiction, I was given the opportunity to joint-design season six’s anthology cover, Casting Call, with Teddi Deppner, who leads Marketing.

The initial concept and composition was mine, and Teddi swapped out a few images for higher quality ones. She also reworked the phoenix silhouette I had to make it more unique from some of the other branding of that season. I worked on the lighting (including the spotlight beams, sparkles, lens flares, feather shadows, and textures on the clapboard), and Teddi did the typography.

You can see our collaborative efforts below our final version.

Book Design for To The Stars

JennethMarch 23, 2022Artwork, Book Covers, Design, Layout DesignLeave a Comment

I was able to design Grace Ingles’s senior portfolio project for her professional writing degree. I loved being able to do illustrations this semester, and had fun laying out the interior designs for this book in particular. I was able to play off of the design and color scheme of The Girl Who Drank The Moon, and use a similar typography as the Lunar Chronicles, which I really enjoyed. It was also fun to create a small little world for the girl featured on the front—Grace’s themes involve a lot of pushing forward and overcoming trials to reach among the stars, so I wanted to create a little place the girl could escape to over the chaos of a busy city and home life. I like to imagine that’s her house with the skylight, just below the cliff (visible in the full artwork below the cover), and that she likes to sneak out at night and watch the skies.

Cover Design for Santa Omnibus

JennethFebruary 2, 2022Book Covers, DesignLeave a Comment

When you go to college, you go to get a degree, to pursue your dreams, to get a serious job when you graduate. I did all of these things. And then some days I have the non-serious job.

I was stoked to design the complete series omnibus for Ben Wolf’s insane Santa Saves Christmas series. It was a bit of a challenge, largely because I had to combine elements from all three books into a single design to Ben’s specifications He wanted puffins flying everywhere, and they all needed to be viciously branding weapons of mass destruction.

Can I do that? Sure, thing.

Cover Design for “GRACE and Salt”

JennethJanuary 10, 2022Book Covers, Design3 Comments

This was a longer-term project dating back to the summer months, but the book is officially up for pre-order! I had the pleasure to design a biblical leadership book for Melissa McCormick of MX3 Business solutions.

Page 2 of 16
←
1
2
3
...
16
→