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AI in Book Cover Design?

Good thing – bad thing?

by Cathy Helms of Avalon Graphics

PART TWO

(Missed Part One? Click here...)

USING AI - THE PRACTICAL BIT

How AI relates to book cover design in particular.

I consider AI a tool much like all of the software that I utilize and the resources that I license or create on my own. I see AI as part of the process, not the 'creator' of a design. When I purchase three royalty free stock photos (and / or line art files) that I then blend/edit, color balance, etc., together to create a book cover design, I am creating something new and original from those base resources. And that is what book cover 'design' is.

What is not book cover design is buying a photo (or taking one yourself) and putting text over it for your book cover. That is only a photo with text on it. Thus, using a single AI generated 'image' is also not book cover design – not in my opinion.

A great example of how AI generated images can be used effectively in book cover design is a current top selling novel by Sarah J. Maas titled 'House of Earth and Blood'.

The designer purchased an RF license from Adobe Stock, and the artist lists that the wolf head was created using Adobe Firefly. At the time of writing, all of this is perfectly legal. In fact, many of the stock agencies now offer AI generators built into their sites – one must buy credits to make use of their service, and it is considered 'RF Stock' once generated. This process may change depending on how AI evolves and what precedences are set going forward with regards to artists. But right now, it is legal to purchase a license to use an AI generated image in commercial work.

So, what should an author do if against AI, but still needs a good book cover designed?

Ask up front before you hire a cover designer! Do not hire a designer without making it clear that they are not to use AI in any way. Or if you do not mind some AI used, then also make that clear to the designer before signing a contract. The design contract should also state whether or not the designer's work makes use of any AI elements.

I fully respect a potential client's wish to require that I do not use any AI tools in creating their book cover design. But that potential client must then understand that since they are refusing to allow the use of these new AI tools to assist a graphic designer in creating their vision of a book cover, then it will take longer to produce their product, and cost additional fees to cover licensing of multiple stock resources to get there. Or the client may hire a photographer, models, and rent costumes and props to achieve their desired image. Another option is to hire an illustrator to draw the cover design to their exact specifications. Often, illustrators are more expensive than traditional graphic designers because they hand draw the entire artwork, and must purchase expensive software and hardware to be able to produce the digital art. Those are the options that are available to get the job done.

Another way to use AI in the book cover design process is in creating concept designs quickly between the client and the designer. Then, once a concept is decided upon and approved by the client, the designer would license stock resources that will replace the elements from the AI concept art to become the final book cover design without using the actual AI generated image.

I do spend days piecing together concepts for my clients, using watermarked 'comps' from stock agencies at present. If I were to switch over to asking AI to give me these ideas in visual format, I could run through quite a few more ideas in short order without even opening Photoshop.

This again is using AI only as a tool and not for the finished, commercial design. An example of this is a recent project where a client wanted a photo-realistic style cover of a young Anne Boleyn writing in her journal. Of course, actual photographs of Anne Boleyn are not available since the camera wasn't invented until nearly 300 years after she died. But I was able to generate concepts using AI to show the client my layout ideas.

The client was open to using AI, but in the end, we chose an old painting of Anne that was in the public domain. The AI tool saved me time though, and gave my client excellent visuals to help them decide on what they wanted on their book cover. And searching for stock resources on any of the stock agency sites now constantly give results that include AI generated images available for licensing. So obviously they are selling AI to whomever is willing to buy them and use them.

Let's run through an example of what AI could do and how it is a good tool for a designer who has been tasked with laying out a book cover design for a project. Client wants a high country style landscape and finds this photo online:

Now say the client loves the overall photo, but doesn't want the big stone in it. I select the stone and use Photoshop's AI Generative Fill option to remove the selection and fill it in for me. AI pulls the data from the surrounding area and potentially from Adobe Stock images to accomplish the task. I then get this:

Another example as to how AI can speed up my process is selecting and isolating objects in existing stock photos:

I ask AI to select the subject in this photo, and then I can use that 'subject' in any environment. For example, place our Scotsman on a more dramatic background:

Without AI built into Photoshop, this simple two-step process would have taken me potentially hours to pull off manually, using brushes and selection tools.

In the past, I might have passed up on even considering those stock images due to the complexity of having to alter the photos to get what the client wanted. But AI tools built into Photoshop make it possible today.

And finally, I will show what AI can do on its own by giving MidJourney a prompt for a book cover idea. Let's see what I get when asking MidJourney for a Roman soldier standing in a field staring at an army across the battlefield.

As you can see, not perfect (Roman historians would likely find fault in the uniform), but it only needs some minor editing to correct AI mistakes depending on the desired use of this image. While I could find a stock photo of a field, then another of some Roman soldier who may or may not be dressed correctly for the period, and finally some soldiers is all possible. But time consuming searching for them all, and I would be asked to make multiple edits to their costumes, weapons, etc. Not to mention the hours involved trying to get all of the pieces and parts to blend together into one composition (color grading, perspective scaling, depth of field, etc.).

So, in this case, I would go with the AI generated design and edit it to suit the needs of the cover design – still color grade it, add or subtract any unwanted elements, and enhance it to make the best overall image that I could. I would go on to add the typography, properly set, and fit it to the specifications required for printing a book.

Other quick mentions of the uses of AI generators are to create custom jewelry, clothing, animals, buildings, fantasy objects, spaceships, special weapons and shapes that do not exist in real life. I can ask AI for a dragon / horse creature with gold scales and wings in a standing position – and then place that dragon into my overall layout where I have used a stock image of a castle and a stock image of the Scottish Highlands.

The possibilities are endless.

Is it ethical to use AI for a book cover?

It depends on the AI generator as of this writing. As far as I know, only Adobe assures us that their photo contributors are compensated for Adobe Firefly / Photoshop / Illustrator trolling their stock libraries for its sources. Other AI generators claim that their search engines only mine works in the public domain. But that is tough to prove and likely would not hold up in a court of law.

Will AI replace graphic designers?

Not yet. Try getting AI to set a book cover jacket for KDP (Amazon)! It is not possible. While I can get AI to give me an image with type on it, and even spell the words correctly (most of the time), I have yet to get properly set and formatted lettering out of AI. So, I feel like my job is secure for now... even if I do love to play with AI and see what sort of crazy stuff it will come up with.

Many thanks for your practical insights into using AI tools (not necessarily images) to help with cover design creation, Cathy. I'm sure our followers will find this article very interesting.