ROLE
Art Direction and Design

CHALLENGE

Peering through my shelf of horror books I read as an edgy fourteen-year-old, I was inspired to redesign the rather plain book cover of The Merciless II, a young adult book brimming with blood-curdling suspense and terror.

The original Merciless II cover is clean and minimalistic, despite its plot’s obsession with gore.





ORIGINAL BOOK COVER

REDESIGN

To reflect The Merciless' use of violence and explicit writing, I took a dynamic and messier approach to designing the book’s visual identity.

DESIGN HIGHLIGHTS

Use of dark purple signals danger and evil.

Cutting off of the head foreshadows the stripping of Sofia Flores’ autonomy.

Layered Bible pages create a pentagram, a nod to the book’s themes of religion and satanism.

TARGET AUDIENCE

The audience of The Merciless series are teenage girls into horror*, so the cover must call to their (and the book’s) striking edge and punky youth.


*The Merciless’s author Danielle Vega has been named the Young Adult Stephen King.

WHAT ARE COMPETITORS DOING?

I collected and analyzed visual similarities found in popular horror teen books.*

*Barnes and Noble’s Best Sellers in Teen Horror.

In general, a teen horror book cover will rely on dark colors (such as black and red) and unsettling imagery to convey its character.

MOOD BOARD