Book Designer | Jazmin Welch

From sketch to finished book! This cover involved some acrylic painting then digital painting to bring it all together. Check out this reel about @haamyue ’s book The Lost Century (out now with @arsenalpulp ) and journey with us from initial sketches, to rough paintings, and refinements along the way—all the way until the final art was created and compiled with the chosen typography. As you may know by now, my favourite projects are the ones where I get to draw and paint! 👏🏻🥰 The Lost Century is a rich and charged historical fiction piece with glimmers of moments. This whirlwind of teeming fish was a great visual fit! — ID: photos and video clips of the drawing and creation process behind this book cover. — #outnow #newwork #fleckcreativestudio #arsenalpulp #bookdesigner #coverdesigner #coverdesign

I’ve talked about getting free ISBN’s before but did you know you need one for every format you want to publish your book in? That includes hardcover, paperback, ebook and audiobook. If you want to publish all 4, you need 4 ISBNs. If you are doing a paperback and ebook, you will need 2, but if you just plan to do an ebook or paperback you can just get one. Not sure how many formats you want to publish in? You can always get more ISBNs down the line. — ID: a video of me, Jaz, taking in her office. — #fleckcreativestudio #isbns #selfpublishingadvice #selfpublishingtips #authortips #authoradvice #newauthors

I’m following the lead of other designers and am starting to put more unused (or killed) covers on my site. Some designers like the talented @nathanielroyroy call it the cover graveyard, a term I think is very apt! I love the direction of this cover but ultimately an illustrator was hired and if you want to see the cover going to print you can head to the Arsenal Pulp Press site to preorder a copy! This book is a fun read full of interesting stories about the films shot in Vancouver and the locations and people who have made them unique. — ID: a mockup of an unused book cover for the book Shot in Vancouver, Adventures in Hollywood North by Sam Weibe. — #newwork #killedcovers #fleckcreativestudio #bookcoverdesign #coverdesigner

Return to Paueru Gai edited by @mevancouver is out now with @arsenalpulp celebrating 50 years of Vancouver’s Powell Street Festival. The book contains all 50 years of the festivals posters, a chronology of events with fascinating sidebars and photos, various features on specific elements and compelling essays that highlight the cultural and political importance of the festival over the years and its continued importance today. The book is a community piece that editor Emiko Morita took special care in, to ensure the volunteers who made the festival happen, year over year, have been celebrated and recognized. — ID: a flip-through of the full color book. — #newwork #fleckcreativestudio #bookdesign #coverdesign #layoutdesign

I painted a little gift for 2 of my favourite pals last week and I love how it turned out. There’s something so special about thinking about how much you love two people while painting their tiny little faces on a block of wood. 🥰 The 3D sides were the perfect spot to add in more lupines, the most beautiful flower around that you can catch all over Newfoundland. ❤️💜 — #acryliconwood #acrylicpainting #miniportrait #fleckcreativestudio #homemadegifts

Pizza Before We Die, An Eye Witness Account in Gaza is available for preorder now. @arsenalpulp This urgent book is a necessary read. Hassan, living in Gaza, began posting on Reddit about his daily experiences and what he saw. These heartbreaking and raw accounts made their way to @yasukonguyenthanh who worked with Hassan to turn the posts into this book. From the book description: Hassan captures the unspeakable horror of the tragedy in Gaza with restraint and precision, never sensationalizing, always bearing witness. It is a work of raw power and emotion, and a reminder that in the midst of chaos and tragedy, our shared humanity remains intact. — Cover artwork by @fuad_alymani — ID: photos of the book including a photo by Hassan on the book’s title page showing eggplants cooking on a makeshift fire/stove.

Happy book birthday @nmlhazard !!! The Life of a Creature is out now with @arsenalpulp ! I’m a happy gal when I get the chance to draw a full cover wrap so enjoy this lil book flip through complete with illustrated creatures for each chapter. — ID: a video flipping through the book — #bookcoverart #coverwrap #bookcoverdesign #bookdesign #fleckcreativestudio

I have finally decided to slow things down after years and years and years of holding things together and pushing through when I really should have been putting on the breaks. As a gal with a poor immune system, gut health issues, and severe insomnia, pushing myself to the max capacity has not been a wise choice and it’s led to back to back issues that I’ve just been plodding along with, working every step of the way, without taking a leave or time off. Why do I do this do you ask?? I do this because the economy is scary and I want to try to safeguard (read: control) my and my family’s future by saving and buying a house and all those fun things, but as an entrepreneur working in a creative field (and a typically low paying one at that: for context on the industry, some presses pay as low as $700 Canadian per cover: if you wanted to make a frankly too low for modern life in a big city salary of 40k you would have to design a whopping 57 covers a year), that has meant taking on an absurd amount of projects to pay myself a livable salary comparable to my peers in other fields. But this creative career is the life I chose and the life I love, it just needs some restructuring and some slowness injected into it… and a bit of a break, to ensure it’s sustainable long term. As an immediate measure for my health I’ve stepped back from quite a bit of work by giving away many scheduled books to fellow designers and postponing others where possible to scale back to a much much slower pace. I’ve kept on a few projects to keep me afloat, but this change will allow me to recover from a sickness that has been kicking my but for over 2 months now, which I imagine won’t let up because I haven’t rested enough. On the agenda now: slowness and remembering how to be a human!! To all my authors and fellow book designers, thanks for being here and supporting what I do! It means the world. I love making books so much and think it’s what I’m destined to do. I plan on making this career path work for me and my health long term. 📚 #burntout #slowingdown #fleckcreativestudio #timeforrest

With some books, there is just an instant connection. The words feel like a blessing, arriving before your eyes right as you are ready and needing to see them. This was one such manuscript and it feels very special to me that I got to work on the cover. It’s also likely why I enjoyed playing with so many concepts! @susannah_m_smith congrats on the brilliant book and thank you for bringing me on board @invisibooks Out May 12th, preorder from your local indies. — I started reading it at my family cottage and I would pause to read passages aloud to my mom who was up north with me. Faced with the sudden death of my beloved dad, I have had to look loss directly in the eye, and in the same breath, I refuse to stop seeking beauty and joy. Loss of such magnitude calls forward more questions than answers, but that is one of the many beautiful qualities of life itself. We know so little. Life is what we imagine it to be, what we create into existence. Just the other day I was talking to my friends about how I call my dad into existence often by bringing him into the present tense. I don’t know if I do it on purpose but I constantly say things like, “My mom and dad live in...” “My parents are like that too,” “My mom and dad love going on walks,” etc. Not a single one of these little moments passes by without me noticing them. There’s a minute but unmistakable pause where I recognize in my mind, that I have conjured my dad. If I am here, how do I know he’s not over there? And for a moment he is alive, at home with my mom. — From the publisher: A novel of ideas told through poetic essays and reflections, The Alchemy of Paradise explores the tension between collecting and transmuting, order and disorder. [...], it meditates the ways that art and imagination allow us to chart personal maps through the universal yet individual territories of loss. Refusing collapse into despair, The Alchemy of Paradise offers curation itself as a restless, ongoing practice of creation and renewal. — ID: a reel showing various cover mockups of options for this book cover, including the final cover on the last slide. — #fleckcreativestudio #bookdesign #coverdesign #coverconcepts #coverdesigner

Happy earth month! I’m excited to be kicking off a book design project soon for the beautiful soul who bid on my services at the @1percentftp auction and want to plan some more earth month festivities to get involved in. I am always thinking about this one planet of ours and the small but important choices I can make both at home in my daily life and in my design practice to help our earth and all the beings on it thrive. I hope you can all get out there this month to do something good to the environment, and ride that wave into the rest of the year. We only have this one home. Let’s treat her right! — ID: a carousel of photos I’ve taken on nature that I keep on my phone for regular doses of beauty and inspiration. Photos include moments on the lake at the cottage, meadow views, walks with my dog, and snowy peaks. — #earthmonth #earthmonth2026 #fleckcreativestudio #1percentftp #1percentfortheplanet

New work: Drag Thing by @gabemontesantiauthor will be out next month with @arsenalpulp !! 💕 ✨ — ID: a flip through video of the book. — #fleckcreativestudio #booksworthreading #fortheloveofbooks #booklayout #bookcoverdesign

The coolest little dingbat you ever did see: a hand drawn sequin by @gabemontesantiauthor that I plucked out from one of the incredible drawings that accompany their new book; Drag Thing. Swipe to see the cover which also features a daze of euphoric sparkles ✨ that these sequins throughout nod back to. Preorder this amazing book now @arsenalpulp or your local bookshop. A little book flip through is coming your way shortly. ✨📚 — ID: a photo close up of a text page of the book with the dingbat shown and a photo of the book cover. — #bookdesigner #coverdesigner #bookdesign #fleckcreativestudio #newwork