Today I'm interviewing my
fabulous cover artist, Naj Qamber. Naj does all the covers at Inkspell
Publishing, and we're very lucky to have her. I sat down with her to ask her a few
question.
1. What made you decide to
become a graphic artist? Did you study it in college?
I think I was 16 when I decided to become a graphics
designer. I used to manipulate photos together when I was about 13 and I
managed to build a big enough portfolio that it caught the eye of a local
Creative Director and he sort of took me under his wing. He gave me an
internship at a local design studio and I was usually working on corporate
design.
My time at the studio made me realise what I wanted to do with my life.
And I loved reading YA books back in the day (I read historical romance mostly
now), and I would always look at the beautiful covers and say "One day,
Naj. You'll get to design book covers too!".
Inkspell was my very first
client! And nope! I did not study it in college. But I do have a bachelors
degree in Business Informatics to help me run the business and handle clients
the best way a business could.
2. How long have you been
designing book covers? How many have you created?
I think since I was 18, so that's about 6 years (8 years for graphics design as a whole). I might have designed about 500 covers by now, if we're counting pre made covers as well. Wow! I didn't realise I've designed that many!
3. Does it take a lot of
time to design a book cover? What is the process involved?
It actually depends on the project really. If the
cover involves a lot of detail and elements, it could take me about 3 hours to
put together. But on average it takes me an hour and a half to put together
something. There are times when it doesn't take more than 30 minutes. The
toughest part of the design process is the feedback stage. That's where a lot
of time is put in. We're talking about an extra 4 to 8 hours all
together.
The process, put simply, is like the following:
Inquiry stage - I give the client my prices, and if they're okay with it, I give them two dates. One for the brainstorm and one for for the first draft of the design.
Brainstorm stage
- iron out details, talk about what we'd like done, etc.
Feedback stage -
the client gives me their feedback after I show them the preliminary.
Finalising stage
- I send over the clients book cover and any other swag designs she/he ordered
with it.
4. Do you have any covers
that are your favorites (other than Tiger Lily, of course!), or any work that
you are especially proud of?
Hmmm, that's a very good question! Now that I think
about it. I actually don't have a favorite cover. But here is some of the work
I'm proud of:
Thank you, Naj! And thanks
for the wonderful cover.
Tiger Lily is available for pre-order on:
And on Kobo:
For more information about Naj and the fantastic work she does, check out her website:
