Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Interview with my Cover Artist Najla Qamber

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:

                      https://www.pinterest.com/pin/220887556699370718/
                      https://www.pinterest.com/pin/220887556699297925/
                      https://www.pinterest.com/pin/220887556699218541/
                      https://www.pinterest.com/pin/220887556699104657/
                      https://www.pinterest.com/pin/220887556698233022/
                      https://www.pinterest.com/pin/220887556700863653/
                      https://www.pinterest.com/pin/220887556700733135/
                      https://www.pinterest.com/pin/220887556700272342/


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:






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