Better Book Covers for The Expanse: Experimenting with Shapes & Colors
To understand how shapes & colors affect compositions and communication, and I re-designed the covers of 3 books from The Expanse series. This post describes the concepts used and documents the design process.
The Expanse
Leviathan Wakes, Caliban’s War, Abaddon’s Gate
Books by James S.A. Corey
12" x 8.6" Book Covers, 60lbs paper
Print/Illustration
2019
Individual Project
Rong Kang, Chew
Featuring graphic elements from The Expanse TV Show, and a continuous evolution of the Protomolecule on the spine.
Research & Concept
Welcome to the Future. Humanity has colonized the solar system: the Moon, Mars and the Asteroid Belt and beyond. However, a mystery lies beyond the stars and threatens to change everything.
The Expanse universe created by James S.A. Corey chronicles the appearance of an alien substance known as the Protomolecule in this new world, and how it changes the dynamics between the planetary nations of Earth, Mars and the Belt. Adapted into an online TV series in 2015 on Syfy then Amazon Prime Video, the books and show have gained a strong following and is now in its 3rd season with a 4th in production.
I am also a follower of the series and it is quite something — a strong sci-fi opera with a realistically built world rooted in physics and social dynamics. It explores what happens when powers and corporations try to exploit a mysterious new force that no one understands, and how inequality brings about strength and determination.
Light spoilers for The Expanse books and TV series follows.
I knew that I wanted to incorporate some of the imagery of the TV show into the book covers, which as you can see used some traditional sci-fi art. The rough front-to-back splash appeals to spaceship enthusiasts with its intricate details, but makes for a slightly busy scene especially with the heavy text. I also found that the art is quite cryptic as to what goes on it the book (which may be deliberate), and as such fails to represent the dynamics and drama in the story.
Through researching relevant captures from the show and fan-art, I formulated the style and concept for these new book covers. I was quite inspired by this set of Tarot cards featuring characters from the show, and found that the flattened style was a good way to reduce the complexity of figures, but also retain some detail. I also liked how some of the additional lines and dots add motion to the scene. With my beginner skills, I would probably scale the complexity back further and keep it simple.
For the concept, I would incorporate 1–2 central figures in vector art, add hand-drawn highlighting effects, and frame it against a background with shapes to add a sense of motion and dynamics between the figures.
This idea was inspired by and reinforced by this poster on Etsy that remixed the official poster with these elements. I liked how it carried the idea of the motion of the figure, Julie Mao, and her launch into the unknown.
With this idea in mind, I set out to create the first cover in the book, Leviathan Wakes.
Design Process
Leviathan Wakes
I first fixed the layout of the poster in Adobe Illustrator with the necessary text for the book’s title. I decided to keep the textual information simple so that I could focus on the central artwork. The type used is D-DIN and D-DIN Expanded, which is close to the FF-DIN used in the show’s title cards. While I initially wanted to experiment with sentence casing for the title, I eventually kept to a bold all caps to respect the hierarchy and maintain a consistent feel.
As for the central figure, I used the poster as a reference image to start drawing out Julie Mao with the Pen tool. I decided to keep to the reference’s style of a two-tone figure, with the “brightened” portion of the body a different color, so I adapted the isolated portion with some modification. For her hair, I used a Surface Pen to make shorter work of getting lines in place different clumps, then joined them together make a contiguous shape.
As for the colors, I knew that I wanted the background to remain dark to represent space, and also have blue, as that is the color used to represent the Protomolecule in TV show. I decided to keep the main figure black, and while initially experimenting with a cyan blue for the highlight, I decided to use white instead to fit the “explosion” and use cyan for smaller highlights around the whites of the body and in the hair instead.
Finally there is the Protomolecule, which I wanted to connect from the spine of the book towards Julie Mao’s hand. I initially used a neon scatter brush which I made following this tutorial from Tutsplus to create this pattern. As for the background of the book cover, I used the white explosion pattern from the reference image, but also added an inverse blue pattern to add an additional sense of motion.
After a class critique, I finished my touch-up up work in finishing the back-of-the-book blurb and adjusted the size of the title on the spine. I also changed the way the blue highlights are done in the figure. I re-drew the highlighting around the white highlights on Julie Mao so I could get them positioned exactly where I wanted them, and also changed the Protomolecule to simple blue as the white dots in the center were too “sparkly” and distracting. I felt that the end product captured the energy of the series well, and was a good start and gives anticipation of this set of book covers.
Caliban’s War
For Caliban’s War, I knew I wanted to feature Protomolecule hybrid warrior (“Project Caliban”) that was engineered by a corporation at the heart of war-sparking conspiracy.
While my classmates mentioned that the hybrid wasn’t too creepy, I decided to not have it up front and center as it was difficult to get the detail right on it. I instead included the gunship Rocinante to have a dynamic between the two figures.
To maintain consistency, this cover also kept to a similar concept: 2 central figures in vector art, (hand-drawn) highlights in the accent color, and some background elements that would represent some of the motion and action happening in this scene. I chose a red/brown color that represented the Rocinante’s panels and also the bloodshed from conflict. The bullets (using the neon particles from the earlier book) also glow orange. Although the Protomolecule is never orange in color, I decided to take a creative license to keep to the palette.
One of the main challenges of this piece were the shapes. On Rocinante, I was initially going to keep to just one accent color, but found that it was difficult to communicate the figure of the gunship with just the orange panelling. I decided to add the grey panels and also modify it from the reference image to complete some of the “shapes” the mind was forming to complete the ship.
The background shapes were also problematic — I had initially wanted to have a tessellating pattern of varied hexagons in the background, but after just a few panels I found that it would have been difficult to keep it subtle and complimentary to the central figures. I decided to just focus on the front (guns) and back (engine) of the Rocinante, and the point where bullets hit the Protomolecule hybrid.
I liked how this cover kind of had a reverse direction of motion to the first book, the motion is from the right starting with Rocinante’s bullets, through the hybrid and ending up as a Protomolecule splatter on the spine. If I had more time, I would try to explore more possibilities with the background, or work more on the detail of the hybrid.
Abaddon’s Gate
The last book had a relatively straightforward concept, which again used the central figure, highlights and background shapes to put together the composition.
Instead of a human/humanoid and a ship, I would feature a massive flagship called Behemoth, and a massiv-ier Ring stargate that appears following the events of the previous book.
While I initially thought about shifting the position of title around this gate to show its displacement, I decided to keep it consistent with the others instead. The palette for this book would be purple, which evoked a sense of mystery in the vast expanse of space.
I was initially going to use the same paneling effect for the highlights on the Behemoth, but I later found that it didn’t really convey the scale of the ship properly — a large cylindrical ship would not have the illuminated part of it cut off abruptly, but would have a gentle change as in the reference image. I then used a gradient fill to achieve the desired effect. The lights and the engine burn of the Behemoth glow shades of purple, as do the shimmer of the Ring and the Protomolecule in this cover.
The hardest part to get right, and I think I still haven’t got it down, was the colors used in this piece. Purple is quite a dark color, and its lighter shades can be quite jarring. Most of this piece uses the darker shades and the background is predominantly dark to cause focus on the Ring. However, it also makes it difficult to focus on the details of the Ring and the Behemoth as well.
The background shapes used here are also rather sparing and simplistic, with the circles on the back of the cover representing other connected stargates, and those behind the Behemoth trying to convey the motion. If I had a little more time, I would experiment with other circles behind the portal that wouldn’t detract too much from the figures.
Given more time, I would certainly work more on the colors for this cover. I tried brightening the background, but it is still a little too dark and has difficulty contrasting the darker purples. While I think the contrast in size between the 2 figures works, I feel there is not enough detail on both the Ring stargate and the Behemoth ship. The background shapes also need to be revised to better communicate the motion and dynamics in this scene, and to fill in the sparseness as well. This book’s spine is also thicker, which led to some miscalculations as your might be able to spot in these photos.
Continuity and Concluding Thoughts
In the end, I am quite pleased with the end results of the books as a whole. While there are some fixes I would like on each book, I feel that the overall theme came together well, with each book still having a unique perspective and take from the other books. I felt that the gradual change in scale, close-up on Julie Mao, then out to a small gunship and a warrior, and lastly way way out to a massive starship and gate, was a happy coincidence that lent well to the theme as well.
Lastly, about the final touch on the spine: From the start I knew that I wanted some sort of continuity effect on the spine, and I decided to use the Protomolecule to carry that idea as it evolves through the series to its final purpose. I feel that the end effect actually turned out quite well and would be an interesting treat to someone who notices!
