Project brief: This is a really odd coming-of-age story about a boy who creates an alternate reality in which he discovers a secret world of aliens and space creatures. Of course, he is the hero who gets the girl in his world. In real life, he is a bit of a nerd.

Approach: He keeps a journal with him the whole time in which he writes about his alien world. It seemed like the best place to create imagery from, so I drew several versions of the cover until I got the best one.

Effectiveness: I think that the thing that really makes this cover is the debossing on the type. It makes it appear as if it is really scribbled by hand. I had no idea if it would work as an effect or not but it really came out great.

There are beautiful production details on this jacket with debossing used to great effect.