01 — Project details
The aim of this project was to create a book cover for the Strawberry Daiquiri novel, book 1 of the Cocktail Hour series. This book is a romystery (a hybridisation between a beach read and a cosy mystery) so the cover needed to follow the typical style of those genres. The blurb needed to be intriguing without giving away too much of the plot.
02 — Creative process
To keep with the genre conventions for beach reads (usually clear, block colours that stand out against each other, a simple image on the front) I made the cover a light blue with red font. This book was the first in a series, so it was important to keep this in mind - all the covers would need to flow together and look nice next to each other on a book shelf. The best way to do this was to create potential covers for the other books too, to make sure that Strawberry Daiquiri didn't look out of place. I used a simple, drawn picture of a Strawberry Daiquiri, and added a shadow to the image. I did this because many mystery novels have a simple image on their covers (like beach reads) but it's usually something to do with the title, and they tend to use an obvious shadow. I then found a clear font that was striking enough that it would be recognised easily as a 'H J Tarrant' novel.
I researched popular beach reads and what their blurbs were like, which helped me to create the blurb for Strawberry Daquiri. It touches on the key points of the novel, such as the introduction of new characters, the murder in the hotel, and an old flame coming back into the protagonist's life, all without giving too much of the plot away, as requested.
03 — Results
The brief was met and the cover came out exactly as envisioned.