Resting Life: Cover Progression

Does anyone else love seeing the design progression behind their favorite book covers? I do – I love seeing concepts evolve to create the perfect cover. So I thought I’d show you the progression of the design concepts of Resting Life: Jesus’ Rest for the Busy or Burdened Believer.

I had no vision for this cover. I basically started by giving my designer, the talented Sarah Grace Grzy, free rein. I told her, “Basically I’d just like it to convey the message and be stunning.” (Not a tall order at all… ;))

First, we went over possible background images and mood concepts:

The sunflower cover is so pretty and bright with gorgeous colors. The feather cover has beautiful color and texture and design, and I love how it’s not a full photograph. The water/tree cover is stunning!
I loved each design for different reasons, but none of them fit the book right.

So it was on to round 2. I sent my designer my author aesthetic pinterest board, and she sent me these beauties:

I LOVE them both! The colors are gorgeous . . . but it still didn’t seem right for this book. After tossing around other ideas, I came up with some specific elements to shoot for, and here’s the results:

I liked the nature idea, but the color tones weren’t setting the right mood . . . So we tried again, this time with simple images and some non-image designs:

I LOVED all these new images, particularly the cliff and the yellow trees . . . but the mountain hut image immediately captivated me.

From there, we made only a few more adjustments . . .

And there it was – the perfect, gorgeous cover for Resting Life!