Portfolio
:format(webp)/99designs-contests-attachments/107/107145/attachment_107145375 "This design was a layout proposal and was never published. It was created for a fictionalized biography, aimed for 8-12 age children (mostly girls).
In this novel Ave shares the letters of her best friend Katie and recounts her memories from the time they escaped a convent as young adults (where they were nuns), until Katie’s death at the age of 53.
The story is set in Western Germany from 1523 to 1552, in the time of the Protestant Reformation. Therefore, my main attention was to have all the clothing and other details representative of this specific period in time.
As the letters sent between the two friends are the main focus of the entire story, I’ve decided to use a font in the title (and in the header of the back cover text) that could represent the handwriting of one of the women.")
:format(webp)/http://s3.amazonaws.com/projects-files/47/4747/474796/649a567e-893d-44f8-8f92-5a4a726f2d09.jpg "Book 4 of the \"Melanie Hogan Mysteries Series\", which stories always take place within the environment of an hair salon.
This particular book is about a murder and the struggle of the main suspect to solve the mystery, to avoid being arrested.
Apart from some hairdresser instruments that are always placed on the back cover of all the books in this series, one of the requests of the author was to incorporate a large flower garden where some of the action takes place. The flowers also helped to represent and reinforce the title, changing some of them to a blood color.")
:format(webp)/http://s3.amazonaws.com/projects-files/26/2607/260755/d3ae1db2-4509-4df1-b192-8c3ffd5b33e5.jpg "These are the first two publications for the \"Moderný Pračlovek\" series (Modern Caveman). The main idea was to represent caveman drawings in a very simple way and products that were used at that time... but also in our days.
The first one — “Kuchyňa Pračloveka” (Caveman's Kitchen) — is an untraditional cookbook focused on the choice of ingredients and kitchen skills/practices rather than just recipes.
The second publication is an ebook — \"Desatoro Prikázaní Moderného Pračloveka\" — that basically means \"The 10 Commandments of the Modern Caveman\". Following this line of thought, the author requested something related with the religious meaning of the title. Therefore, I used the idea of the stones of the 10 Commandments described in the Bible.
It was also important for the author to keep the “caveman illustrations” separated in two zones — the day and the night. At the center, the squatting silhouette represents the meditation and balance.")
:format(webp)/http://s3.amazonaws.com/projects-files/104/10471/1047102/52c2de35-a873-42c8-9c8d-5841b2257e6e.jpg "“Let’s Fly Away” is the first book of the “Adventures of Thomas Leaf Monkey” and his group of friends. In this story the group is very bored in the rainforest, when they realize that they can use their imagination to go anywhere they like.
In this book, Katrina Maxwell leads children (ages 3-8) to use their imagination and yoga moves to travel to a new place and have some fun. The author is a Speech-Language Pathologist & Children's Yoga Instructor with a passion for education and travel.
All the illustrations were created by another artist, that made a fantastic job giving life to each character. I was extremely careful to keep the book layout/typesetting and the cover design completely faithful to that initial work.
The simplicity of the book cover design was also meant to make those characters stand out, as well as to introduce the author, her brand and her work to all the potential readers.")
:format(webp)/http://s3.amazonaws.com/projects-files/53/5364/536422/21e35722-23ae-47ad-bb7f-98cf82c4b9b6.jpg "This is a children’s book that tells the story of Inky, a boy with a “special power”: he makes people happy by touching them with his index finger. But there is one drawback. Every time he touches someone, he leaves behind a small Inky tattoo, like an \"i\" inside a circle.
This is the first book in the series, where the boy tries to learn how he can make people happy without touching them, because none of his friends want any more Inky tattoos.
Until he meets Pinky. She's always sad so Inky tries his super power on her. And guess what? It doesn't work on her.
I created the illustration for this design, following the examples and descriptions given by the author, to perfectly match with the two main characters in the story.
The vibrant colors were chosen not only to catch the attention of the children but also to transmit a joyful and positive atmosphere.")
:format(webp)/http://s3.amazonaws.com/projects-files/56/5673/567342/4524350d-d589-4050-affc-b7378633d1a3.png "The main work of “Mt Zion Kids” is to organize activities for children. The request was to design an image to be placed at the top zone of their Homepage, to catch the attention of the viewers and also to represent what they do.
Although they had a lot of photos of their activities, it was decided to create an illustration, in order to avoid showing pictures of real kids for safety reasons.
The groups of children in the illustration show some of the activities that are developed in this place. My main objective was to give very happy face expressions to the characters, as well as a vibrant color scheme, to convey a cheerful and relaxed atmosphere.
The process started by sketching each group of characters in paper. Then, they were all placed together in Adobe Illustrator, where the drawing was created with just black strokes. The final stage was entirely made in Photoshop, adding all the colors, lights, effects and the background landscape.")
:format(webp)/http://s3.amazonaws.com/projects-files/53/5372/537259/4cbf6f31-8d26-4c3c-aa8a-e42d5a26c8e5.jpg "This is the final result of several projects to produce all the graphic elements for the first book of the “Wonders of Windsor Mystery Series”, which stories talk about the adventures of a small group of children in their hometown.
The original characters were designed by Sharad Kumar and Manel Mendoza. The following characters, that appear throughout this story, were created by me with the same technic of the first ones (in Adobe Illustrator).
The biggest challenge designing the book cover, but specially when making the illustrations, was to keep faithful to the original style and physiognomy of each character, while putting them in different poses and situations. It was important that they would gain life but still being easily recognized.
The other elements of the book, like the symbols of each chapter, as well as the representation of the series, were made following the same graphic line of the logo, that I had previously designed.")
:format(webp)/http://s3.amazonaws.com/projects-files/102/10271/1027108/4884f377-c872-4399-858d-de23d1722614.jpg "Know Yourself is an award-winning company providing educational toys, kits, and literature for young children. The Adventure Series: 12 Systems of the Body Workbooks introduces each system of the human body and teaches children about themselves from the inside out.
Each Workbook includes learning pages, activities, games, recipes and also a comic book, whose story is set in a different country and at a different time, with the same group of characters. Adventure 3 is set in Ancient China and is about the Circulatory System.
The main work of this project was the interior layout and typesetting, following a consistent graphic line that I had initially designed for the entire series.
As some parts were based on a previous workbook, there were already some illustrations. However, I had to create all the others in order to refresh the design and to include the new activities in this book.")
:format(webp)/http://s3.amazonaws.com/projects-files/159/15940/1594015/1b7b27d6-b2f6-4a02-9301-1a5019f759cb.jpg "This project consisted of creating a complete digital booklet (cover and inner pages) with the potential to be printed in the future. Therefore, the cover was designed taking this requirement into account, making it possible to have a paperback version when needed.
As the booklet is an addition to an existing book series, the design concept followed the same clock theme to represent “Time”. With meditation and inner reflection being the main purposes, I thought it made sense to display a clock where we could see the inner mechanism. It's like looking inside each person and seeing what they’ve improved by dedicating their time to these daily devotions.
The sun rising over the horizon represents each new day, as well as a new opportunity to deepen the knowledge of the Bible, no matter how busy life is. This is also the reason why I kept a very calm and peaceful look throughout the book. It invites to pause for a few minutes and helps to get into a meditative state of mind.")
:format(webp)/http://s3.amazonaws.com/projects-files/42/4256/425638/31b21383-de42-41dd-95af-1f376f9d60d9.jpg "\"Der Happy-End-Chroniken\" is an autobiographical series which includes several fiction novels as well as non-fiction books.
This story of Coco’s life is about how to overcome abuse and violence and find love and harmony permanently. The main concern of the writer is to make her readers strong and to encourage them to heal themselves and free them from outside regulation.
There is an element of “magic” that needed to be present in the design, in order to transmit not just the atmosphere of the novels but also the system used by the author in the healing process. The unexpected color of the yellow clouds helped to achieve this effect, as well as the “flying dandelions” that represent the freedom achieved during this process.
These special details were also used to keep a consistency in all the books of the series.")
:format(webp)/99designs-contests-attachments/118/118528/attachment_118528714 "“Rummet innanför” (translated from Swedish \"The room inside\") is the sequel of “Inte som du tror”, which book cover I had previously designed.
Some events and details on the story led to the choice of the elements in the design. The main characters — Bella, Miranda and Erik — are on summer holiday. Bella is searching for answers about her family's history, after finding a revealing picture. Miranda is haunted by memories from a fire at her school. Erik is working at a soccer school for kids. As requested, the main scenario needed to also include a mansion, as well as a sports car.
As in many books which target audience are teens, it was important to give some clues but without revealing too much of the plot.
I followed the same style of the first book, as well as the placement of the characters and background effects. However, to better distinguish both books, I used a different color scheme with fresh tones to make the connection with summer season.")
:format(webp)/http://s3.amazonaws.com/projects-files/124/12459/1245993/434f91af-541e-4a61-8763-8621d8379b96.jpg "In order to make the connection with Book 1, 100 Minutes with God, I kept the same title design. Although the covers are different, this approach helps readers to see the two books as a “collection” rather than as a “standalone”.
Regarding the concept, I followed the author’s suggestion of an hourglass to represent time. I placed it as if it were rising from the water or floating on its surface. The seascape with the sunlight gives a great depth to the book cover, but the main reason I chose it is because it conveys peace and a sense of hope. The entire image invites the reader to moments of meditation and devotion… always in a positive way.
The flight of the seagulls, which seems to create a growing line of movement extending from the back cover, represents the evolution and personal growth that these minutes of daily reflection can help to achieve.")
About
Hi! My name is Isabel Robalo.
I'm an experienced Designer working mainly in the Publishing Industry:
• Book and eBook Cover Design
• Interior Book Layout/Typesetting
ISA DESIGN® is a registered brand that represents the services that I provide.
Enjoy my portfolio and come back whenever you need a Design project. I'll be glad to help you.
Country:
Portugal.
Member since:
November 02, 2013
Reviews
"Isabel is simply amazing. She has become an essential member of our team. We can always rely on her, she is so quick to respond (in a very detailed manner) and she always delivers an amazing work !!"
Anonymous client
reviewed 13 days ago
"Trustworthy and reliable. Thanks for another great job!"
Anonymous client
reviewed 20 days ago
"As always Isabel delivered an outstanding work, everything is so polished and perfect. She anticipates every details and makes great suggestions to make the project even better. I can only recommend her !"
Anonymous client
reviewed about 2 months ago
"Patient and very talented. Thanks for the great work!"
Anonymous client
reviewed 2 months ago