My book cover was based on the song "Sober Up". When I listen to the song, I hear a man looking for someone to help him escape his alcoholism by providing him the happiness he lacks.
Depression is often depicted as a rainy day and gloomy so I choose to use photoshop over an image of the sky to create a smoky, cloudy look for the background to symbolize this sadness.
I used the title and name of one of the band members in place of the character.
The character is tempted by alcohol, saying their friends turned to alcohol to solve their problems. The Rose being poured onto the umbrella represents that temptation. I choose rose because it is pink in color and the branding of the original song is whimsical and I wanted to keep some of that contrast between sad lyrics and happy branding in my cover.
I then bought an umbrella to pour the rose on to symbolize the character the song referencing as protecting the main character from that temptation. It also reinforces the gloomy storm in the background as umbrellas are obviously associated with rain.
Image Credit
The umbrella image is an actual umbrella I had a friend pour colored water onto, the background is photoshop, and the bottle image is from pexels.
More angles of the printed cover
Here are the interior pages I designed for this fictional book.
I decided to extend my bottle theme onto the copywriter page and have the bottle pouring out the numbered list of required information. I also decided to try and use greyscale on the chapters page to make it look a bit more interesting. Finally, I included a little umbrella icon to keep the theme going throughout the chapter pages.
Lastly, a full view of the dust jacket. I wanted to show my less pink version of the cover because I had both versions simultaneously till the very end and had a tough time choosing between the two.