Micaela Alcaino Plays with Optical Illusions for Raybearer and Redemptor
Micaela Alcaino is a graphic designer, currently living in London, UK, who spent the last decade working for both Penguin Random House UK and HarperCollins UK, before deciding to go freelance in 2018. Here she takes us through her process for designing Jordan Ifueko’s Raybearer and Redemptor.
It was a privilege designing for both of Jordan Ifueko's debut books but I can’t talk about Redemptor (Hot Key Books, 2021) without talking about Raybearer (2020). With its much-anticipated release, I wanted to share some of the inspiration and processes behind the designs of the two books.
The fundamental goal of my work is to craft a cover that acts as a window into each book. To be able to do this authentically, I like to read the manuscripts for each project I work on. This process leads me to identify the implicit elements embedded within the narrative that is not always apparent within the briefs.
I have always had an affinity towards optical illusion art, particularly the works of Giuseppe Arcimboldo, William Ely Hill, and Salvador Dali. I felt this style of design would be fitting for Ifueko's books as she explores themes of perception and understanding through the use of language as well as memory, and the power of telling one’s story. I wanted to capture these holistic concepts as well as demonstrate the richness of Ifueko's writing (as Raybearer and Redemptor are filled with vibrant imagery and a diversity of characters that are both intricate and filled with depth).
There were multiple illustrations and designs that I had created for Raybearer, most of them being straight-forward protagonist-led covers, but I threw the now chosen cover for Raybearer in as a wild card option. To be able to achieve the optical illusion well, it required some time to map out each design. There was a lot of trial and error around the placement of the animals and foliage in Photoshop to accomplish the optical illusion of the faces that I wanted to achieve in my illustration. The hardest part in illustrating both Raybearer and Redemptor was making sure that the animals and leaves housed the face shape of the girl on the cover. I had to use a lot of cutting, pasting, and mocking up the imagery in Photoshop before I could settle on something that worked well cohesively before I took it to illustrate in Procreate.
The choices of animals and colours were representative of those depicted within each narrative, for example, lions symbolically play a large role in reflecting the main characters of the story, while the crocodile is a representation of an Anti-Hero in book two. The font, Orpheus, is a favourite of mine to use on fantasy novels as it contains many variations and glyphs to the letters that encouraged a playful, magical, and unique look to these titles. Its simplicity also balances the elaborate nature of each design.
Final cover
But above all else, what I love most is hearing the reaction of others when they notice the hidden visual element on each cover. I still receive messages on Instagram from readers that only just notice the face on Raybearer even though they've had the book for a while. I hope for those that haven't yet read it, it'll attract them into reading the beautiful narrative that exists beyond the front cover.
Final cover
Editor, artworker and lifelong bibliophile.