About two years ago as I was getting ready to publish my book, I faced the issue of the book cover design. Having no garphical design skills, I had to learn how to use different tools and after 6 weeks of hard work came up with a list of different designs. I invited a group of friends to show them my list of cadidate book covers to select the winning one.

This one is inspired by the hand made mexican tiles installed in the basement washroom of my house.

Cracked tile concept. Inspired by a renovation effort in the washroom that involved cracking tiles.

Using some of my paintings. The idea being that it is a collection of stories hence the cover will have a collection of my drawings as well. I thought I was being very clever.

Cracked green tile concept. This one I decided to put grout in between the tiles for a more realistic tile look.

Flooded background concept

Arabesque tile design, inspired by the ornate designs in the al-hambra palace in the the south of Spain.
Barbed wire concept.

At the end of the slide show. My friend said that she is sick and tired of hearing me talking about book covers and that they all look the same any way and that I should just chose one and stop driving everybody crazy with choosing a book cover design.

So I decided that I hated all the designs and started all over again with a bran new concept which I called the “orange concept”. The second time around I didn’t consult with anybody about it.