BTS: The Boys in the Back Row Cover Design
Who doesn’t love an eye-catching book jacket—one that stops you in your tracks and invites you into a whole new world? Illustrator Dion MBD gives us a behind-the-scenes (BTS) look at his process for creating the jacket art for Mike Jung’s The Boys in the Back Row. In a series of sketches, Dion MBD talks through his initial ideas, his back and forth with art director Chad Beckerman, and the steps that led to the final cover.
Sketch 1
Dion MBD: Creating the sketches for the cover was very exciting, thanks to Mike Jung's emotional yet humorous writing. At this stage my main goal is to set not only the composition, but also the mood for the cover. I wanted to capture the light-hearted tone of Mike's writing while at the same time highlight the friendships between the characters.
Sketch 2
Dion MBD: Chad W. Beckerman, the art director, suggested some additions to the first sketch. He also gave me some typography templates that I could use to draw over. He wanted the whole cover to feel cohesive and I liked his idea of having the letters scattered all over the chairs. Personally, this was my favorite sketch and I was hoping this would be the one. In the end, however, we decided that the last sketch had more potential to explore. We then tried to combine the first sketch and the last one.
Sketch 3
Dion MBD: This is the resulting cover from the combination of the two sketches. When I added colors for this, I wanted the outside world to feel colorful and the world within the drum to look like a comic book. Here was where Chad and I went back and forth the most. He suggested I explore different color palettes while I felt this one captured what I had in mind best at that time. I actually really appreciated the push backs I got as I realize that as an illustrator, looking at my own drawings for hours makes me develop bias towards it at times.
Sketch 4
Dion MBD: I came up with some color choices and we decided that the second option was the most dynamic and dramatic. We also felt that the typography could have more movement, and those are the last notes I had to complete the cover.
Sketch 5 — Final Sketch
Dion MBD: After doing final touch ups, adding textures, and fixing the typography, we arrived with this cover for our final. I think it was a good decision rendering out the inner scene more as it gave the entire cover more pop.
Follow Dion MBD on Instagram @dionmbd, and author Mike Jung @mikejungwroteabook.
★ “Witty and original...a touching, honest depiction of male friendship.” —School Library Journal, starred review