Silent Prima Donna

Silent Prima Donna

About the Project

For this project, I worked with a client who was the author of this book and was in need of a cover design. Throughout the project, we worked together to capture the essence of the book. Part of my process included reading the book and talking with the author about any ideas she had. The book is a tragic historical thriller that follows four different characters, centered mainly around a woman who is married off to a mobster by her father, who is the mobster’s right-hand man. They go on to have children, who are the two other characters. The story has quite a big plot to capture with the cover, but once we both understood the vision, story, and key points, it became quite easy. The cover features a heart with flowers, held by a lace glove hand, and blood dripping off the flowers and leaves. The lace was added to add texture and bring more attention to the significant symbolism of the lace gloves. After the cover was taken care of, we decided that we had time in the project to go forward with the character pages. For these, I designed an underline to go under the character names, in addition to choosing fonts that matched the design and the characters.

About the Book

Marrying a Mafioso was just another duty Prima had to fulfill. Listen and obey was how she was raised. But getting kidnapped by a rival Mafioso? Having his child? That wasn’t part of the deal.

Nico DeLuca, a lifelong bachelor, owed Prima’s father a debt. Now, they are in a marriage neither of them wanted.

With two children- a bastard son and a daughter, Nico never wanted.

Cover Design

We started with a photoshoot, which I took, which ended up not being quite it, so we re-grouped and discussed where the photos fell short and how we could capture the vision more effectively. We came to the idea of a bleeding heart with flowers and blood, and decided to have another photoshoot. We found an anatomical heart vase online, which ended up being exactly what we needed. From there, we found flowers, some lily of the valley, and some pink and white roses, which juxtapose the storyline of each character being robbed of their innocence in their own way. The author really had the idea of white gloves in her head for the cover, since the woman married off wore white lace gloves throughout the story, and it was a defining moment in her story. We got someone to hold the vase while wearing the glove to incorporate the idea in, and added drops of fake blood to take it up a notch. From there, I made the photo moodier, found fonts, and added a gradient with lace.

Interior Pages

The book follows four characters and changes perspectives throughout, so the author and I decided to add character pages to aid the perspective switches. Each character has a hand-drawn, then digitally altered design centered around their personality and defining moments from their perspective. Some of the elements in the design draw from future books in the series to create a cohesive design that will be used across all the books, tying the story and characters together throughout.