As an author, one of the most difficult things to do (aside from writing the book of course) is design a cover that accurately portrays your book in a professional and attractive manner. One of the most common questions I see online is “Where do I find a good designer?” and one of the most frequent questions I get personally is “Who illustrated your covers?”
Well, today I’m going to answer your questions. In addition to being an author, I’m also a graphic designer. And before you start drawing the wrong conclusions, no I did not design my own covers. In fact, I would strongly recommend doing that even if you are a star designer, unless it’s book covers that you design for a living.
There’s a certain art to laying out book cover composition and typography that only designers who know the book market are capable of executing.
Each of the designers I’m about to list are excellent in their own right, but they all have different pros and cons. Some of them will get to your cover and have it finished in a week while others have months-long waiting lists. Some are relatively inexpensive while others will cost you your firstborn. Because this information varies and can change at any time, I’m not going to list it, but I will provide contact info for each of these illustrators and you can reach out to them yourself.
As a bonus, if the artist has books that are live on Amazon, I’ll link to them so you can check them out if you feel so inclined to do so.
Guilherme Batista
I’m going to start with my own designer, Guilherme Batista. Guilherme is a pleasure to work with and I absolutely adore his artwork. I found him on ArtStation through some artwork he’s done for Arena: The Contest. All the artwork below is from the game as Guilherme doesn’t post his cover art online.
And here are the designs he’s done for me:
Luciano Komorizono
Luciano is another fantasy cover artist I’ve had the pleasure of working with. He’s done two of my covers, which I’ve included below. Luciano is by far the fastest in turnaround for any cover designer that I’ve worked with. He’s also done some work for fellow fantasy author D.K. Holmberg.
Leonardo Borazio
Leonardo Borazio, also known as Dleoblack on Deviant Art, is yet another fantasy cover artist I’ve worked with in the past. He’s done one of my covers, and truth be told I would have used him more often if his wait list wasn’t so long. Leo has done work for a lot of fantasy authors, most notable among them being my friend, J.T. Williams.
J Caleb Designs
Jake at J Caleb Designs is an awesome fantasy cover artist. He’s never created anything custom for me, but I have purchased a few premades from his website for use in a future project. I know tons of authors who haveused J Caleb for their cover, but he’s got a pretty hefty waiting list because of it.
Covers by Christian
Christian is a crazy talented dude and I see his artwork all over the place. He’s done some minor typography work for me in the past, but no full covers. That being said, I also know plenty of authors who use him regularly for their covers.
Amalia Chitulescu
Amalia is far and above probably my favorite cover designer out of any of these that I’ve listed. Unfortunately, she’s also one of the more expensive, and thus I have not used her for any of my covers. But if you can afford it, these are quality custom illustrations.
Merilliza Chan
Merilliza is another illustrator I’ve had my eye on for quite some time. Her work is beautiful. There’s no other word to describe it. The colors, the flow, the detail. It’s all perfect. Check it out for yourself.
Well there you have it. All of the cover designers I’ve worked with and a few really awesome ones I haven’t. Should you be in the market for a fantasy cover designer, now you know who is the best in the business.