13 NJ Book Cover Designers to Hit the Best Seller’s List
Some of the best designers in the United States come from the Tri-State area, and New Jersey has some of the most diverse book cover designers around. Not only are these artists committed to producing brilliant design, they are dedicated to constantly learn new ways to hone their craft and expand their skills every day.
What makes New Jersey so unique? When you look at the state’s history of well-known artists, you can see they all come from diverse backgrounds; face unique challenges that set them apart from others; and rise above and beyond their previous ambitions. New Jersey designers are particularly skilled in showcasing a new perspective culture and style with their works and they don’t let any medium hold their creativity back.
Book cover design is a difficult project to tackle – not only does a cover need to be visually pleasing, it has to represent the genre of the content within. The key to a brilliant book cover design is clearly communicating what the reader is getting when they open the book and teasing about the contents inside. The next time you try to judge a book by their covers, the following designers are sure to beat any expectations you have!
Taria Reed
Reed is a trained photographer specializing in children and family portraits. She has a passionate love for photography and devours romance novels steadily. It only seemed natural to blend the two together once she wanted to go further with her art.
“I would practice for hours and turn photos into covers or art. I was approached by a few self published authors who asked me to create covers for their e-books and I jumped at the opportunities to learn even more.”
Kaytalin Platt
Platt has a passion for character art and illustration. Her designs have won cover awards throughout the United States, and she manages to balance working as a graphic designer for an engineering company and a freelance graphic design career.
“Being a dreamer in school paid off, as I found a rewarding career doing something that I love. I’m imaginative, dedicated, and hard-working.”
Joey Onorato
Onorato is a designer who has worked in several mediums before he dived into book cover design. He explored art from an early age and it guided him to discover what he loves and doesn’t love about the design industry. But when it comes down to it, his covers have an amazing chalky-sketch look to them!
“I discovered the world of comics. I was instantly hooked on the fantastical word they offered as well as inspired by the great art. I would read every page and then try and draw what I saw, eventually creating my own characters and comic books.”
Kim Sponaugle
Sponaugle is a children’s book illustrator whose work has a playful quality that’s hard to ignore. She developed a style that captured the effervescence of childhood and has tried to incorporate that joy into her book work. Childhood imagination is her main design inspiration.
“I try to look back upon my childhood in the words of Lewis Carroll, as the “child of the pure unclouded brow, and dreaming eyes of wonder.”
Victoria Colotta
Colotta is a multi-talented designer who has branched into web design, logo design, and book cover art with momentous success. She has a client base across the United States and has won awards for her excellent design skills. In January 2007, she established VMC Art & Design in order to provide quality graphic design services to authors, small businesses, and the publishing industry.
“It was my goal to be able to take my background in figurative drawing and abstract art and combine that with the technical aspects needed to create a visual portrayal of an idea or message. For every new project I take on and client that I work with, I still strive to keep this goal.”
Elynn Cohen
Cohen is an art director and senior Designer, experienced in designing print book covers, interiors, ebook covers and marketing and advertising materials. She has worked with both large and small publishing houses as well as self publishing authors.
Tim Ogline
Ogline is a versatile, focused and inventive when it comes to his illustrations. His award-winning illustration work has been published by a number of different periodicals, including The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Wall Street Journal, the Utne Reader, Outdoor Life, This Old House Magazine,Institutional Investor, Philadelphia Style, Loyola Lawyer, How Magazine, and The Florida Review among others.
What makes his style unique is his attention to detail. His covers portray their books well and certainly make you want to read them.
Mary Brown
Brown specializes in portrait and event photography, however as an associate art director at a major business publication based in New York City, she has organized cover shoots of notable people such as Oprah Winfrey, Dick Parsons, and Venus Williams.
She has only recently expanded into book cover design, but her work is certainly taking her eye-catching photography to the next level!
Colleen C. Andrews
Andrews’ first love remains in publication design; she has expanded her graphic design skills across the design field to tackle projects from advertisements to book cover designs. She primarily works with Kensington trade paperbacks to create original art and photo retouching.
Tim Jacobus
Jacobus is most well-known for designing the covers of the Goosebumps books – all 62 books in the flagship Goosebumps series published by Scholastic throughout the ’90s. However, his contributions were strictly work-for-hire, meaning that Scholastic has always owned the intellectual property.
His commitment to painting has taken a toll. “When you care about something like this,” he says, “it can make you cry.”
Christina Ann Rodriguez
Rodriguez developed an early interest in painting and animals. Her medium of choice is oil paint on Arches watercolor paper. Her illustrations are both adorable and colorful which showcase her preferences to animals well.
Susan Newman
Newman is an award winning branding and brand visibility designer, book cover and interior book designer. She has worked as an art director and graphic designer for various book publishing companies in New York City including Penguin and Macmillan.
“I love to work with start-ups, entrepreneurs and small businesses to help them visually express themselves, so they are broadcasting to the world that they are a strong global brand.”
David James
In addition to his illustration and book cover design, James is an accomplished graphic designer with over a decade of experience as a freelancer and over six in the corporate area.
“Art can do many things, but it does not have to do many. There are two things art should do, not necessarily in tandem. It should say something and it should look good.”
These are obviously just some of the best New Jersey book cover artists that we thought deserved a little extra attention. There are many others out there in the e-book and print industry that are creating an amazing graphic design and illustration works, and more are learning how to design every day.
If you feel we’ve missed a New Jersey book cover designer that absolutely deserves recognition, please let us know in the comments and we will update this list!
