Star Wars Books art director Scott B sat down with us to answer some of your pressing questions about cover design, and share some never before seen concept art from a few of your favorite Star Wars novels.

Thanks to everyone that submitted questions. We had a lot of fun with this and will do more in the future. And if you ever have questions about anything related to Star Wars books - we’re always happy to answer them.



(All questions were submitted by fans. They have been lightly edited only for grammar/spelling and concision.)

When in the development process are covers typically designed?

Once we have a synopsis and an outline, we generally start to look at covers. While fine details of a story can change over time, once the core idea of the book is set we start to talk about what would make for the best cover. We try to give ourselves as much time as possible since you never know how long the cover process might take.

Normally how many designs are made before deciding on the final cover?

It varies from book to book. It has ranged from as few as 4 or 5 designs all the way up to near 50. There’s no hard and fast rule as each book is a new challenge.

Who has the final say on the cover design?

That comes ultimately from our friends and partners at Lucasfilm.

Do authors get any input into the cover process?

Sometimes we go to the author for character descriptions, but authors are not really involved much beyond that. It is a discussion between us and Lucasfilm.

How do you find artists? Are they affiliated with Disney/Star Wars already, or do you take freelancers too?

We find them in many places, and we are always looking for the artist that best suits the job. Obviously the artist and art must ultimately be approved by Lucasfilm, but we have tremendous freedom to seek out artists from all over.

How much creative freedom does an artist receive?

We try to let them do what they are comfortable with, what is true to their style. We hire them because we like their artistic approach so we don’t ever want to lose that. There are always parameters and rules, but we try to give them as much creative license as we can because that produces the best cover ideas.

How much leeway do artists get in rendering character likenesses? Do they ever get told to redo something?

We try to have likenesses as close to the actor/character as possible. Yes, absolutely people are asked to do revisions when it isn’t quite working. You can always tell when Han Solo or Leia Organa doesn’t quite look right. It stands out.

When creating a cover is it more important to convey the story or to just look awesome?

Both are equally important, but the ultimate goal, and really challenge, is to convey them in the way that’s the most visually appealing

What sort of research, if any, goes into crafting a design?

I keep a running mood board for reference and design. Sometimes it’ll be a case of following a specific artist that I think can do something striking, and waiting for the right project to come along. This was definitely true for Matt Taylor and the cover he designed for Dark Disciple.

What computer software do you use to create book covers?

I use a Wacom pad and stylus, and generally work in Photoshop and Indesign. Sometimes, if needed I’ll also use Illustrator.

What inspires you when matching font-to-image?

The feel of the image, and the tone usually informs the choice of font, and of course if the font matches up with the image. There’s also the added element of both the image and the font having to match with the Star Wars logo itself.

How do you choose a color palate for a cover?

Color choice is usually based on something that both stands out and matches the tone or mood of the story and characters. Obviously for books in a series like Aftermath we try to really differentiate the colors so that we don’t create confusion.

What is your favorite Star Wars book cover?

The old covers to the Lando Calrissian trilogy of novels by L. Neil Smith.

Was a minimalist approach a matter of avoiding spoilers as opposed to the more classic “movie poster” covers? [For the Aftermath series]



For Aftermath we wanted to give a clear connection to the time immediately after Return of the Jedi, and to show that this was a big grand story. We quickly honed in on the idea of something simple and iconic that would direct you right into the book.

What made you put only half of Thrawn’s face on the cover versus his whole body?

In short, it just looked cooler and more intense. A big part of Thrawn is wondering “what’s going on behind those eyes?” and this pose really gets to that.

If you could remake the cover for one of the newer novels, what would you change?

Well, I’m really happy with the covers for all our new books, and wouldn’t want to change any. But, if I were to do an “alternate” cover for one, I’d like to go back to Lords of the Sith, because I haven’t done many covers with Darth Vader and always am excited for the chance to do more with him in an interesting way. But I think the current Lords of the Sith cover that Aaron McBride illustrated is awesome.

When designing a book cover, what - to you - is the most important part of the process?

Having a great cover concept to execute.

How is the decision made about what goes on the cover? And since so many photo models are used, what happens when there isn’t sufficient visual reference but the style of the cover is set?

Well, before actually diving into creating a style we study and check what reference material is available for that book and think about which of these elements would make for a good cover. This is before we get too deep into the process, so if we discover that there isn’t enough reference, we can pivot our cover concept without too much trouble.

What are the hardest and easiest parts about trying to capture the whole essence of a book in one image?

There’s really nothing easy about it at all. The hardest part is making sure that you’re really conveying the mood properly, and hinting at the story.

Are cover concepts which are initially rejected then remixed/reused for other novels?

That does happen in publishing broadly. It hasn’t happened with Star Wars books, but it is possible.

Are the designs of the other Star Wars books taken into consideration when you create a new cover?

Definitely. We try to make them all stand out and unique from one another.

Do you usually use a scene straight from the book or an image that conveys the title and plot?

It depends, but usually we tend toward an image or character that is familiar in the Star Wars universe and conveys the tone, rather than a specific scene. Even covers where we have scenes (like Twilight Company) it usually is not a literal interpretation.

Will we ever have any of the artists that work on the Marvel comics do any covers for the novels?

If their styles match the subject matter we are definitely open to it. We actually had Phil Noto create a cover for our 2015 sampler.

Why do some books typically only portray a single panel and some portray a full panel that continues onto the back of the book?

That has to do with how the art lends itself to being presented. For a cover like Twilight Company, because it was a big war scene I felt it lent itself to a wraparound cover to help convey the sense of scope. But, for Dark Disciple, where we just focused on two characters posing, it didn’t lend itself for a full wraparound. But we did come up with a great scene for the back with Ventress’ encounter with Count Dooku.

Will we ever get to see some of the concept art and original design ideas behind some of the books?

Sure. Here we have two early concept pieces for Aftermath. Though we knew fairly early on that we wanted to use the exploding Death star as our central image we were still narrowing down exactly how to make that strong connection to the Post-ROTJ era. This is one of the titles that went through many iterations before we ended up with a final design.

I loved the art for Dark Disciple. I’m wondering if there are other similar versions that came close before that was chosen and is there some place we can see those?

We actually have some of the work in progress pieces from Matt Taylor. See below!

1. This was Matt’s first sketch. We thought the color was a little to vibrant and I had him town it down. It was tough to focus on the figures. Layering text over this would have also been difficult.



2 This was the revised sketch. He definitely captured the mood better and toned down the background. We wanted Ventress in the foreground though since she was the focus of the story.



3 This another in progress piece. We experimented with changing the background to a different color and thought that red would help focus the eye and help the characters pop. We were having issues with Vos’ positioning.



4 This is the final cover. Matt decided to change Vos’ positioning completely which made for a much stronger cover.



How do you deal with modernizing / updating the old covers?

As far as modernizing - things like the Lando/Han Solo trilogies, we wanted an updated more modern package while still giving the impression that these are classic Star Wars Tales.

For older books, which were created using file types that aren’t in use today, we update them to our current file standards, which are higher resolution. This is why some of the Legends reprints appear to be “HD versions” of the original covers. And in a few very specific instances we have to adjust text arrangement to accommodate the Legends banner.