Questors: The Castle of Dark Repaire Cover
I was commissioned to draw up a cover design for the first novel in the "Questors" YA fantasy series. I chose to use the logo of the eponymous organization as the centerpiece for the cover to make it recognizable at a glance; a feature that can be carried through into future entries in the series. For the Questors logo, I trialed several versions designed around both the letter Q (and symbols related to it) and the shape of a shield or spear and shield with a banner, representing both the ancient nature and general purpose of the organization. The rest of the cover is deliberately more abstract, divided into four quadrants for the main characters and themed after their magical abilities without robbing the reader of the chance to imagine these characters however they wish as they read the story.
All pictures posted with permission of Patrick Albers, the author of the book.
The final cover design as approved by the author.
The final logo design that appears, somewhat sharpened up, on the cover. It combines elements of a bannered spear and a shield.
The first alternate logo design, combining a round shield with boss and a small banner to evoke the Q.
The second alternate logo design, again evoking the shield and banner without closing the shape fully. The Q is somewhat lost here, though.
The third alternate logo design was based heavily on the first, but replaced the boss in the center with a set of triangular elements arranged around the perimeter to bring in a more solar theme. Its complexity would make it more impractical to use.
The fourth alternate logo design featured the outline of an ancient Persian shield as its distinguishing feature. The outline rather dominates the rest of the logo.
The fifth alternate logo design combined another shield outline with a script Q, looking a bit too close like the latter.
The sixth alternate logo design is based around a Q-like hieroglyphic symbol, with an added element to distinguish it from the symbol proper. It was the base for the final design.
The seventh alternate logo design was a minor variation on the second that attempted to bring the Q back by continuing the shield outline on the bottom. It lost out to the final version.