Style combination · Contrasts

Illustrated Rom-Com Book Cover × Ornamental Romantasy Book Cover

Both are contemporary romance covers, but the rom-com cover uses two simplified lovers on a bright flat ground; this one replaces them with a title-led emblem inside ornamental symbolism.

From the research on Ornamental Romantasy Book Cover

Mix them and make something Illustrated Rom-Com Book Cover Ornamental Romantasy Book Cover

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Ornamental Romantasy Book Cover, their arrangement from Illustrated Rom-Com Book Cover, the finish from Illustrated Rom-Com Book Cover. Not a real work, and not an image of either style.

What each style brings

Each part of the design comes from the style with the stronger say in it, and each style gives at least two.

Illustrated Rom-Com Book Cover (Cartoon Couple Cover) Ornamental Romantasy Book Cover

Type from Ornamental Romantasy Book Cover: Ornamented display
Type as image
Colour from Illustrated Rom-Com Book Cover: Flat fields
Full polychrome
Form from Ornamental Romantasy Book Cover: Floral & vegetal
Borders & frames
Composition from Illustrated Rom-Com Book Cover: Isolated object
Full bleed
Surface from Illustrated Rom-Com Book Cover: Flat

The type

Open fonts standing in for each style’s own type, which is often hand-drawn or commercial.

Display · Ornamental Romantasy Book Cover

Amour

Limelight, standing in for Decorative display capitals with flourishes, often integrated into the surrounding border or foliage

Text · Illustrated Rom-Com Book Cover

The illustrated cover of the contemporary romantic comedy: a couple drawn as flat cartoon figures with simplified faces, from silhouettes and hidden faces to a few cartoon features, caught in one gesture that states the premise, on a single saturated ground of teal, pink, yellow or purple, under a hand-lettered title so large that the figures often lean on it. It recalls the drawn covers of 2000s chick lit. William Morrow's The Hating Game (2016) was an early example and Berkley took it up wholesale in 2018; by 2023, 72% of the romances featured in Publishers Weekly had illustrated covers.

Schibsted Grotesk; Illustrated Rom-Com Book Cover used Tall, condensed hand-drawn capitals in white, stacked in two to four lines down the cover and Brush or monoline script for the title or the author's name

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Illustrated Rom-Com Book Cover, with a counter-accent from Ornamental Romantasy Book Cover. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Illustrated Rom-Com Book Cover (Cartoon Couple Cover) Ornamental Romantasy Book Cover

#024c8b ground · 36%
#ffffff ink · 14%
#fdc104 accent · 18%
#ef3e84 accent · 14%
#e87722 accent · 10%
#029daf accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #024c8b;
  --ink: #ffffff;
  --accent-1: #fdc104;
  --accent-2: #ef3e84;
  --accent-3: #e87722;
  --accent-4: #029daf;
  --font-display: "Limelight", sans-serif;
  --font-text: "Schibsted Grotesk", sans-serif;
}

Use it with care

Illustrated Rom-Com Book Cover (Cartoon Couple Cover): Draw the characters as the book describes them, in skin tone, body size, age, disability and gender, and do not lighten or slim them for the market: illustration spread partly because stock photography offered too few people of colour, and Helen Hoang chose it to get past readers' bias about her Asian lead. Because a cute cartoon cover does not show how explicit a book is and can be mistaken for young-adult fiction, say clearly on the book and in its retail listing that it is an adult romance. Critics have read the uniform look as sexist, making women's adult reading look like YA (Kelly Jensen, Book Riot, 2019), so draw this book's own premise rather than the template.

The two styles

A cartoon woman holding colorful books and a man in a navy suit with a yellow tie glance at each other against a turquoise background. Huge white and pink lettering reads “PLOT TWIST,” with yellow accent strokes above and below.

2016–present · North America, Western Europe, Global / networked Illustrated Rom-Com Book Cover (Cartoon Couple Cover) The illustrated cover of the contemporary romantic comedy: a couple drawn as flat cartoon figures with simplified faces, from silhouettes and hidden faces to a few cartoon features, caught in one gesture that states the premise, on a single saturated ground of teal, pink, yellow or purple, under a hand-lettered title so large that the figures often lean on it. It recalls the drawn covers of 2000s chick lit. William Morrow's The Hating Game (2016) was an early example and Berkley took it up wholesale in 2018; by 2023, 72% of the romances featured in Publishers Weekly had illustrated covers.

Ornate gold lettering reading “EMBER CROWN” fills the center of a purple and teal design surrounded by flowers, curling foliage, stars, and crescent moons. Two pale long-necked birds flank a crown above the title, while paired swords and a jewel-adorned skull complete the symmetrical composition.

2024–present · North America, Western Europe, Global / networked Ornamental Romantasy Book Cover The cover of a romantasy (fantasy-romance) novel in which a large, often embellished title sits among story-specific foliage, creatures, weapons and emblematic objects, commonly as a border. Book Riot (2024) says there is almost always something floral or foliage-like, usually as a border, with skulls and weapons common additions; Reedsy describes the aesthetic as maximalist, with jewel-toned palettes and gold foil. No single colour or finish is universal: the cool watercolour All the Stars and Teeth and a banana-yellow paperback show the range.

More combinations

With Illustrated Rom-Com Book Cover

With Ornamental Romantasy Book Cover

Every style combination