Cover Design
My CD cover designs for LibriVox projects
Cover uploaded on December 25, 2023
Cover picture: (detail): Dante et Vergil dans le neuvième cercle de l'Enfer (Dante and Virgil in the Ninth Circle of Hell) (1861) by Gustave Doré (1832-1883).
I was much more inspired by this cover: What better way to illustrate the Divina Commedia than Gustave Doré's picture of Dante leading Vergil through the ninth circle of Hell? The red and grey-blue hues of the protagonists' garbs beckoned to be used as the colour scheme for the background, and so, in no time whatsoever, I completed the perfect numinous-ominous cover design for Signor Alighieri's famous story.
Cover uploaded on January 14, 2024
Cover picture (detail): Jeune Fille lisant (A Young Girl Reading) (ca 1769) by Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806).
Idle Tales is written in a lighter tone than Dante's hellish visions, and the brighter hues of the cover reflect this fact quite nicely. A collection of short stories of the mysterious and ghostly, which makes for deliciously goosebumpy reading. The French lady studiously persusing her little book on the cover is taken from a portrait by Jean-Honoré Fragonard. Makes me want to snuggle up on the couch and read a book too.
Cover uploaded on January 28, 2024
Cover picture: Clasped Hands of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1853) by Harriet Hosmer (1830-1908).
This is the second part of the letters by Robert and Elizabeth Browning. I chose the same illustration, with a different shade of background. What else to say about the cover? Maybe it's worth mentioning that the name on top is NOT a typo, the lady is indeed called Elizabeth Barrett Barrett. The family name was Barrett, and her middle name was - oddly - Barrett as well. As this is was the name on the original volume of published letters, I faithfully copied it, but readers naturally think it's a mistake. Well, it's not. Would I ever.
Cover uploaded on January 30, 2024
Cover picture (detail): Ved ruletten i Monte Carlo (At the Roulette Table in Monte Carlo) (1892) by Edvard Munch (1863-1944).
El Jugador is the Spanish translation of Fydor Dostoevski's novel The Gambler, or Игрокъ, in the Russian original. This was a solo project by my Spanish friend Epachuko. Sonia found the picture which illustrates the story perfectly as the story's protagonist is indeed not addicted to card games, but mainly to roulette. Which, to be perfectly honest, I wouldn't know if my sister had not told me. The red and black colour scheme is meant to reference the game as well and the small round thingmagummy to the right of the title is my - admittedly crude - version of a roulette ball. Was fun to play around with the Affinity program to design it.
Cover uploaded on April 27, 2024
Cover picture: A Cottage in a Cornfield (ca 1817) by John Constable (1776-1837).
How to best illustrate a novel about illicit love, lust and longing? I would have liked to just endow (see what I did there?) the cover with the most sensuous mugshot of Sean Bean (a tautology, I know). But that seemed a bit, well, unclassy. Instead, I opted for a remote cottage in the lush fields beyond the forest. Speaks the message loud and clear, at least to me. The two parties involved are mentioned in a sober way, one beneath the other, subtly separated and in reversed colour schemes. Lots of room for interpretation there, too. Finally, I chose a deep blueish red for the background. Et voilà, the perfect cover for Lady Chatterley’s lover.
Cover uploaded on May 30, 2024
Cover picture: Signed drawing of Walter Damrosch (1926) by Manuel Rosenberg (1897-1967).
An autobiography somehow asks for a photograph of the person concerned. But none of the public-domain portraits seemed to convey Damrosch’s passion for music. Illustrating a conductor’s memoirs without at least the hint of a baton feels just – not right. Imagine my delight when I found this drawing, which was even signed by the man himself. I’m not one hundred percent happy with the way the drawing refuses to blend with the background. I tried to put a subtle blueish filter on it, but that didn’t help much. I don’t know – just not completely satisfied with the result. But the book itself seems very interesting. I love autobiographies, a keyhole peep into a person’s head.
Cover uploaded on July 12, 2024
Cover picture: (detail from) Aurora Borealis (1865) by Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900).
After Prairieblummen, this is the second poetry collection by a Luxembourgish author recorded for Librivox. Its author, Nik Welter is a well-known politician, poet and playwright from the early 20th century. His main heroes are industrial workers and people fighting for a more educated and just society as well as legendary figures from our country's past. As the poet's grand-daughter is a friend of mine, I was especially happy to take part in this project. The desolate rust-red and coal-grey landscape of the cover design suggests a feeling for the brutal conditions under which the factory workers laboured and, at the same time, reflects the book's title In Dust and Embers.
Cover uploaded on September 30, 2024
Cover picture: (detail from) Page with Chi Rho monogram from the Gospel of Matthew in the Lindisfarne Gospels (circa AD 700).
The Cambridge History of English Literature is a multi-tomed opus and its first volume on Old and Early Middle English literary works brought back fond memories of a romantic bygone age, a time when I sneaked into the classroom with a cup of coffee in one hand and a copy of Beowulf in the other. Here's to heroic homilies, alliterative battle hymns and the eternal motto of the Medieval Studies student as well as the later literary researcher: Thisses swa maeg! I love the Lindisfarne illumination that my sister found for the cover. At heart, my deor, I'll always moon after the Age of Heroes.
Cover uploaded on November 15, 2024
Cover picture: Michel de Montaigne (lithograph from the 19th century) by Antoine Maurin (1793-1860) and François-Séraphin Delpech (1778-1825).
Montaigne's Essays, in the French original of course. I cannot pretend to have read any of them, excellent as they probably are (or not, who knows). In light of this less-than-enlightened state of being, the obvious choice for the cover illustration was, quite straightforward, a portrait of the author himself. Or should I say, the portrait, because it feels like there is only one of him making the rounds, again and again. I quite like the way it blends into the background and the general sober feel of the design. Not bad for someone who really has no idea at all what this philosopher used to philosophize about.
Cover uploaded on December 30, 2024
Cover picture: Clasped Hands of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1853) by Harriet Hosmer (1830-1908).
This is the third and last part of the correspondence between Robert Browning and his future wife Elizabeth. Same design, slightly different colour scheme. Neat.