Full cover design, spread illustration, and lettering made for the first tome of Ken Tablot’s science-fiction saga, Terminal Samsara.
The client gave me several options for the cover, between a set of portraits (draft 1), vintage pulp (draft 2), or a scenic snapshot of one of the story events (draft 3). We eventually went with the latter, and built a spread illustration around a fight scene between the main protagonists and two evil goons.
My job, as such, was to design the characters following the descriptions in the novel, and place them in a grand and wealthy environment. The composition was built around the fountain, which showcases the peace treaty – handshake – between two races of the world. At the top of the stairs, two evil guys, one in a suit, and one in a typical sci-fi armor, are at the receiving end of the protagonists’ shooting. The idea here was to mix dynamism and grandeur, signaling the action-adventure aspect of the story, while also hinting at the science-fiction vibe (with the planet in the distance, the outfits, the modified weapons, the fountain’s details, etc).
The lettering used, while simple-looking, was a call-back to typical sci-fi fonts, and served as another hint to gear the viewer towards intergalactic races rather than modern-day or fantasy influences.
Read more about the author here: https://www.instagram.com/kendomustdie/
Physical copy
