Book Aesthetics

Lately I’ve been really interested in how to make a book aesthetic. Book aesthetics, for those who aren’t sure, are simply related to the theme, mood, or characters of a book. Think of it like a movie poster with images that tell you about the story! Anyway, here’s one I put together for Sanctuary.

I was pretty pleased with it as a first effort, although I think there’s too much colour focused in the bottom right. I focused on themes of space, imprisonment, and isolation, with Sanctuary found in one another.

If you’re interested in making your own book aesthetic — either for yourself or someone else’s story! — here are some tips I found useful.

  1. Find some public domain images. I’m a big fan of Pixabay for copyright-free pictures. The last thing you want to do is accidentally steal someone else’s work! If you’re hardcore, you could take your own pictures, but… that’s a lot of work.

2. Think of some keywords relating to your book. For the image above, I used space, isolation, imprisonment, and fear. Download any picture you like for now. Don’t worry about organizing them.

3. Choose a theme around which to organize your book aesthetic. You might go with colour, or style, or mood. I did two above — I worked with the colour blue and the core concept of space.

4. Use a free image editing app (Layout and Live Collage are both excellent) to arrange your work.

5. Export and share!

If you create any book aesthetics — especially any of Sanctuary! — please leave a link in the comments. I would love to see your work!