Urban Fantasy Book Cover Design: 15 Stunning Examples

Urban Fantasy Book Cover Design: 15 Stunning Examples

Are you struggling with book cover design ideas for your next urban fantasy bestseller?

Breathe a sigh of relief, and keep reading this article. From urban elements to pure magic, we’ve rounded up the best tips on urban fantasy book cover design. 

In fact, you’ll learn more about:

  • captivating images for urban fantasy book covers
  • shiny, bright, and magical colors
  • enchanting urban fantasy fonts
  • and much more

Let’s ring up the curtain!

Urban fantasy book cover design ideas

Scroll down to learn some powerful insights on choosing images, fonts, and colors that will help readers become a part of your fantasy world. We’ve gathered some spell-binding ideas for your urban fantasy book cover design.

Tips on captivating imagery in urban fantasy book cover design 

What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of urban fantasy? That’s right — a mix of supernatural events and urban elements. Thus, in order to represent the subgenre well, a good idea is to use rich imagery that will give your readers a glimpse of what’s going on in the book. 

Here are a few design ideas that your readers won’t be able to walk past:

  • Build up an urban setting

What’s the first rule of urban fantasy design? Right, present an urban environment. Flashy skyscrapers, mighty towers, graceful bridges, dingy streets – you name it. 

  • Rely on the weather

Let us tell you a secret: adding mist, fog, and clouds to your urban fantasy book cover design attracts and intrigues the readers at the very first glance. Just try it!

  • Introduce the protagonist

Quite often, urban fantasy’s plot revolves around some mystic creatures, like werewolves, vampires, or elves. You know what to do! Wings, claws, elf ears, unusual eye pupils, etc., will pique your readers’ attention without revealing too many plot details.

  • Knockout gorgeous

Speaking of the protagonist, make sure that they have an appealing appearance. Truth be told, most of the time, the foreground of your book cover will be occupied by an attractive young male or female protagonist. Strike a dynamic and effective pose, and there you go.

  • Twinkle-twinkle

The best way to present a magic surrounding is through flashes, sparkles, shine, and glow. Plus, this trick helps to add eye-catching and attention-grabbing elements to your book cover design. At the end of the day, all roads lead to Rome, huh?  

  • Cast silver bullets

To give your readers a sneak peek into the fantasy world, you might want to make your protagonist carry a magically glowing piece of weapon, for example, a dagger, a warhammer, or a battle axe. Another fantastic idea is to hint at your characters’ superpowers by having them hold, let’s say, a mystic fireball.

Now, let’s add a splash of color to your urban fantasy book cover design. 

Tips on shiny and magical colors in urban fantasy book cover design 

Let us say this upfront: you need to play with the contrasts. This technique will help you achieve your main task. What’s that? Exactly. Your urban fantasy book cover will stand out from the crowd and draw readers’ attention.

  • Since the background image of your book cover most often would be a city setting, turn to a darker color palette to set the right mood. All strange things happen at night, remember? An excellent idea is to use dark blue or purple colors. 
  • Now, check out the color wheel to see what contrast color matches your background the best. For instance, if you’ve decided to use dark blue for your city skyline, then bright orange is exactly what you need for your foreground image to represent the magic powers. 

Finally, whichever colors you’ll use, keep in mind that at the end of the day, your urban fantasy book cover should really pop. Make it bright, make it shiny, make it eye-catching!

Our next stop is well-balanced captivating fonts that will look great on the urban fantasy book cover. Buckle up!

Tips on enchanting fonts in urban fantasy book cover design 

First things first: make sure that your font conveys the mood of the urban fantasy. Use typography to plant subconscious clues that will tell your readers that they’re about to set foot in another world. 

Here are our top picks:

  • Brilon
  • Yana 
  • Swashington
  • Lucy Rose 
  • Ostrich 
  • Oswald

You can either select an action-packed fantasy font or use more simple typography. If you’ll go with the second option, you might as well add some metallic structure, sparkle overlay, or glimmer effect to your font. Hocus Pocus!

Wrapping Up

Hope we managed to bring you one step closer to the bewitching urban fantasy book cover design that’ll win your readers’ hearts and minds.

Which book cover design did you like the most? Do you have any other urban fantasy book cover design related questions?

Leave a comment, and we’ll be right back with you.

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