The Spell

The challenge in designing the cover for The Spell was acknowledging its content—a soap opera starring an ensemble of sharp-tongued gay men set in the English countryside—in a manner appropriate to the literary stature of the author. The title refers to the spell of love, of hallucinogenic party drugs and the brief but intense time the characters spent together. This led me to the original concept, depicting Danny, the coveted young stud of the bunch, with his face covered in droplets of sweat and overlaid with saturated, techno-inspired patterns. After repeated revisions, the patterns were removed and the sweat edited out. Thankfully, the scale of the image and the type were left alone.