Introduction to Book Cover Design by Daniel Bolívar

Want to make covers people actually pick up? This course walks you through the whole job, from reading the manuscript to handing over a presentable mockup.

🎯 What you’ll learn

• How a book cover works as a sales tool, not just decoration
• How publishers, editors, authors, and designers collaborate
• How to analyze a text for genre, tone, and audience
• How to research references and turn them into sketch ideas
• How to choose and art-direct photos and illustrations
• How to work with typography hierarchy, scale, and placement
• How to build the full sleeve in InDesign
• How to present your cover with a clean mockup

✅ Requirements

• Skills: Basic design skills, basic notions of Photoshop and InDesign
• Tools: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign or similar layout and image editing software
• Hardware: Computer capable of running Photoshop and InDesign

📝 Description

Daniel Bolívar keeps this very practical. No theory for theory’s sake. You start with what a cover has to do in a bookstore: signal genre, set tone, and make someone stop. Then you look at real covers, talk finishes, paper, flaps, and why those physical details change your design decisions.

Then you get into the publishing side. Who decides what? What does an editor expect from you? How do budget, timing, and resources shape the brief? Daniel breaks down editorial workflow, book types, and target readers so you stop guessing and start designing for a real audience.

The middle of the course is all about process. You pick a book, actually read it, and pull out what matters. You do visual research, fill pages with quick sketches, and pick one strong image direction instead of ten weak ones. From there you build: color treatment and image work in Adobe Photoshop, then typography — hierarchy, scale, contrast, where the title and author name sit.

To finish, you bring everything together in Adobe InDesign and lay out the full sleeve, front cover included. Daniel also shows you how to fake it well with a mockup, so your proposal looks professional when you send it to an editor or drop it in your portfolio.

🧑‍🎓 Who this course is for

• Design students who want a solid print project for their portfolio
• Graphic designers curious about editorial work and publishing
• Book lovers who always judge by the cover and want to make their own

🧑‍🏫 About the Author

Daniel Bolívar is a designer and art director who has worked with major publishing houses like Grupo Planeta and Penguin Random House. He has spent years shaping front covers across different genres, working directly with editors and authors to turn manuscripts into shelf-ready visuals. In class he shares that day-to-day experience — references, mistakes to avoid, and how cover decisions get made inside a real editorial team.

🏁 Final Result

• Design the front cover of your favorite book and present it as a realistic mockup, ready to pitch to a publishing house or add to your portfolio.