As part of our Methods and Principles design class at George Mason University, we were tasked with creating three book covers in the style of a current graphic designer of our choosing. This project included illustration, typography, and style guides.

At the time, I wanted to choose an artist whose illustrative style was distinctive and unique. Malika Favre is a French artist and designer based in London, whose minimal, yet complex illustrative style differentiates her from the crowd. I wanted to implement something similar.

When selecting a theme for my book covers, I wanted to create them around people and places that are actually meaningful to me. This way I would have a much easier time creating a story and style, something that's important for authors telling a story. I chose to base the covers around a friend, a hobby, and a place. I decided to go with my friend Amelia, my hobby of playing video games, and Washington D.C, a place I often go to for inspiration.

The design required me to work carefully with the colors so that I could make the objects viewable as an interesting image, but also as detail - for example, what happens when we remove the color on one side of the video game book cover? It looks more shadow-like, because the extra information isn't needed to understand the image.

Malika Favre's style is very minimal, so in my attempt to recreate her signature look, I was forced to work with less colors, which actually helped me become a better designer as a result. I had made minimal illustrative work before this project, but I was pushed to make it look awesome. As a result, the color palettes I picked had to be both unique but also able to unify as a group, which is why each one has a distinct connection to the other.

Ensuring that the print came out with the correct colors required that I understand the way printing works, and how swatch booklets work. Having used a swatch booklet to best choose the colors I wanted, I then printed early test samples to see how the prints looked. When finally completed, the print came out looking great, and went according to plan.

I learned a lot through this project. From color theory and illustration, to printing and packaging, I learned a variety of techniques that I consistently put into use today.