Above is an example of what it looks like when your book cover, formatting, website, social media presence and logo all work together to form a brand. Each instance uses a similar design language to help reinforce the brand. Each element is individually designed to look its best, but by using a consistent design language, everything ties together. The aim here is to create something that leaves a lasting impression on your audience so that whenever they see something new from you, they instantly associate it with all their good experiences with your work in the past.
This is the logo design we created for the author, Gareth Otton. The idea behind this logo was to create something stylish but straightforward that could work just as well on the spine of a book as it does on merchandise. Transforming the author’s initials into a book created an emblem that instantly tells a story on its own.
When designing these book covers, we knew there would be multiple books before starting on the first cover. We wanted to create a consistent language that would work across all of them so that they would look good as a set. The author is a collector of physical books and wanted them to look great on his bookshelves as a group.
The logo is placed on the spine of each book in the same place each time. This consistent placement adds an extra touch to the cover designs, again reinforcing the overall brand, especially when seen together as a collection on a shelf.
Finally, we come to the website design. We started with the logo and took elements from the book covers to build a site that fits both the author and the books. Using similar fonts for titles and keeping the same design aesthetic creates a feeling of continuity across the books and the website that helps reinforce the brand.
The ideal result is that we have multiple elements that look good individually, but work even better when working with each other. Every element builds on the last to create an overall collection that offers a better experience than any of these items could deliver on their own.