Tristan Vick's Design Portfolio

In addition to being a professional writer and a published author, I have dabbled in some logo design. Although graphic design isn't my main profession, I find the creation process highly rewarding. It's extremely fun and challenging to build something from the ground up and I've always had a decent design sense and am fairly good at getting what I have in my mind's eye down on paper.
I do provide limited logo design services.

Logo design + business card design with logo $100.

Non-Fiction Book cover design $200.

Fiction Book cover design (Not Available at this time)

(Contact me for details)

SAMPLE DESIGNS

Hungry Word Publications

I originally commissioned a logo for my imprint, Hungry Word Publications. The logo was created by Glendon Haddix of Streetlight Graphics. 

Hungry Word Publications Nuvo

I took Glendon's design and streamlined it a bit and added some color. Admittedly, I like the new version much better.

Winlock Press Logo

Although Monique Happy had this final version made in-house, as you can clearly see it resembles my original concept sketch almost verbatim. The only real differences are the exploding debris (of the *impact crater) and the hidden city.
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Winlock Press Concept Sketch

Here's the original Winlock Press design concept drawing I did if anyone is interested in how close the finalized version is to my original. Winlock Crater is the name of the largest impact crater on the dark side of the moon, which is why I went with the moon concept.

See Some More Examples of My Logo Design

TYPOGRAPHY: A Quick Tutorial

I often will do my own typography and interior design. Here are some samples of my new science-fiction fantasy series The Chronicles of Jegra: Gladiatrix of the Galaxy.

First, I commissioned the talented artist Jackson Tjota to paint the art of my character based on a description I supplied him.

Then, using his art, I place text over it. I tinker with text and several layers of vignettes until I got the look I want. I use Affinity Photo, Affinity Design, and Affinity Publisher for touch ups and added text effects. And that gives me an easy to produce e-book cover.

For the full wrap around, I first generate a KDP Print or IngramSpark cover template by heading to their websites and imputing the dimensions (size) of my book, paper type, and page count. Once I have the template, I load it up and then create the cover, spine, and back matter (back blurb, tag-line, publisher logo, bar-code, etc.).

Finally, I play with color schemes until I get the right look. Then I save it as a PDF, which I can load directly to the printers. I also save the PDF as a PNG for uploading to the web and for using with promotional materials.

This year I am producing and publishing a Jegra comic book based off my series. There will be a Kickstarter in September for it. 

In preparation I wanted to redesign the title logo so that it stood out a little more. Most comic book title logos are designed with branding in mind. The problem was, I didn't want a full redesign as that would take away from branding and brand recognition. So, I went with the same font but then gave it a bit of perspective to stand out more. 

It will look like this on the comic book.
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​Speaking of the comic, I did the typography and lettering. Here are some samples.

Unused Book Cover Concepts

Below is a mock-up concept for my brothers photo art book featuring original illustrations of Gilbert & Sullivan musicals. He probably won't use this version, as he makes his own covers. But he felt stuck and needed some recommendations, so I whipped this up so that he's have something to springboard off of. I hope it helped.
Here's a mock-up I did for my friend Jonathan M.S. Pearce. He actually ended up using all the elements of this cover in his final version with a few additional tweaks. 
Below is the Dark Forces of Nature cover I made. I've made about half of my published covers. Although my skills with photoshop are limited, I improve step by step each time I make a new cover. I don't really have any goals of becoming an expert cover designer, I just enjoy it as a hobby.
Using some stock art (these images by Tithi Luadthong) I threw on some simple text and made ads for my Dark Forces book, which contains numerous sci-fi short stories about different things--some future based, some tech based, some all out space horror blended with space opera. Because the stories are all unique, I made several ads. These are the ones which resonated with people the most.

Steampunk Project Logo Concepts

Website & blog banners I've designed for people

Miscellaneous Designs

The above image is a design for a private English language conversation and tutoring school I run here in Japan. 
My friend's English business, which focuses on oral diction and the proper pronunciation.

Business Card / Meishi 名刺 Designs

These are my (and my wife's) business cards.
Vera Japan is the company my wife works for. I designed new business cards for them that would stand out. 
A t-shirt design I made for my schools track and field team. We made many different color t-shirts from this design.
Here are some recent business card concepts I made for my new business cards.
The idea behind these is to have different colors showcasing different covers of my various book series. This way people can "collect" them all and the hi-graphic quality helps with branding. On the back is my imprint logo and book cover while on the front is my author name and info.
MORE DESIGNS COMING SOON.