What I Learned Designing Foil Book Covers For Two Special Editions

I've always loved gold foil covers. I like the sparkle they add to my library and that they make a book feel special - like a piece of art.

When I was first commissioned to create a foil cover for the UK Special Editions of Magnolia Parks, I had a (vague) understanding of foil covers - that they were a finishing technique. But I didn't understand the process of creating one, so that's what I'd like to share a little about here.

How Gold Foil Book Cover Illustration Actually Works

The foil replaces the ink. This meant I had to approach the creation process differently to when I do book cover art. The areas you want to catch the light have to be built as separate, clean, hard-edged shapes from the beginning. So once I had my initial sketch, I would then build out each part in Adobe Illustrator as vector shapes. This meant no blending or gradients and I had to avoid anything too finely detailed.

For a book cover artist working with atmospheric, painterly illustration - this was a super different approach. The art couldn't just look right on screen, it had to survive the manufacturing process!

The publishers really helped me understand the process by sending swatches of the hardcover and foil effects so I could visualize the piece as I was creating it.

The Foil Effect

I think there's a reason publishers return to gold foil on special edition books again and again.

I think it’s about the way the foil performs depending on the light. It catches differently at different times of day and can be such a special addition to a library which makes it perfect for a collectors item - I write a little more about book collecting here.

I'm loving working on the US Collectors Editions which can you see more of here.

Well that's all from this sparkly girl and her sparkly covers. All my love,

Emmy