Recently, I designed the cover for a genuinely great novel called God's Ponzi.

It is a tough story to capture in a single image.

Some thoughts on 'why'

- Clearly, it's Ponzi, thus it's about money in some way. So this set the green + $ for me. We have but a second to catch someone's eye.

- But is it really about money? No, it's more so about computers, hacking, etc. But I didn't want to hit you over the head with that. So a bit of 'matrix' characters/symbols in the background sets that tone.

- I used to do 'hidden images' (or latent imagery) in ads. And wanted something to kick that part of the mind. I considered hidden imagery in the text itself, but too subtle. I also considered playing with negative space. What I settled on was shifting the BG text from the FG text. Just slightly, just enough to perhaps catch someone's attention since it makes it appear slightly 3D.

- I'm a minimalist, so even 'by person' or 'a book' seems silly and wasteful to me. This is where the publisher gets to win on final design. Personally, I would have dropped the 'BY.' But, I did think, that given this is about modern tech, that replacing 'a novel' with #NOVEL draws that into the story of the cover as well.

Ultimately, two colours, simple, clean, to the point. And, it stands out against a sea of book covers that look like they were stolen from random rooms of a millennial motel’s wall art.

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/robert-buschel-1/gods-ponzi/