James Bond 007 Novel Covers
This JAMES BOND 007 book cover project has been a fan-made labor of love that I’ve done in my spare time as a creative exercise with the intention of using these for my personal use as the digital book covers to my digital novels on my Amazon.com Kindle App that I use on my iPad 3 Mini. I’ve always been in love with the various James Bond covers over the decades. For my personal digital e-book library, I wanted all of the Bond books by all of the Bond authors to have a unifying brand look. I also wanted to blend the best visual elements of all the Bond book covers over the years. I am a big fan of the original dust jacket cover artist Richard Chopping that illustrated the first edition hardback books of Ian Fleming’s novels back in the 1950’s and early 1960’s. For my own project, I borrowed a few elements from Chopping’s covers that include his use of the CARGO CRATE logo for the author’s name as well as the wood grain look that is subtly mixed in the background to give the cover some texture. I am also a collector of the original 1960’s Signet paperback books that my Uncle Mike read. I still have many today. From these books, I borrowed the font used in the book titles which is ONYX REGULAR. I also added the sidebar vertical hashtag that originally said “A JAMES BOND THRILLER” and re-named it “A MASTER SPY THRILLER” because I also wanted to use some elements from the 1980’s paperback covers by Berkley Books. I swiped the bold “JAMES BOND” branded logo from the 1980’s paperback Berkley Books and put them on the covers. Like the hardback dust jackets, I added a little drop shadow to make it bolder and pop off the background as if it was embossed just a bit. Instead of using “IAN FLEMING’S MASTER SPY”, I instead re-named it “IAN FLEMING’S SECRET AGENT” and then added the iconic 007 gun logo that borrows from a vintage look. Like I mentioned before, “MASTER SPY” got moved to the sidebar hashtag. The 1980’s Berkley Books used black silhouetted Bond poses. Some of the Eon Productions films also used silhouetted Bond images in the opening titles so I kept that motif going throughout to borrow from both the 1980’s Bond books as well as the films. If I could, I used silhouettes that previously existed. Others I swiped or created my own. From the films, I borrowed from the gun barrel sequence originally designed by Maurice Binder that is instantly seen as the signature look for James Bond in the films. Again, the 007 Gun Logo is from the films. As for the coloring of the books, I attempted to use the same coloring of the Berkley Books or Signet Book color swatches used in the past. Some of the modern John Gardner, Raymond Benson, etc. books I sampled the prominent colors used on those books to give it a recognizable feel. These covers are concept art. This is fan art. This isn’t for sale. The copyright and trademarks belong to their rightful owners. I’m using Calibre software to place these custom covers on the digital books of my own collection for my personal enjoyment.