Earlier this year I was approached by Dr. Judene Benoit with an interesting project. She had just written a book on natural cavity prevention and remineralization, and needed a cover designed for it. I had never designed something book related of a medical non-fiction nature and it presented some unique challenges.

The obvious design quandary was how to stay within the usual medical realm (which is traditionally dull and features a standard author pic), so as to not alienate industry professionals, while at the same time keeping it fresh. Another target demographic of the book slants towards the younger, total health philosophy crowd, which is more at home in the yoga studio or health food aisles rather than a lab. I drew visual influence from cookbooks and fitness books while steering clear of making it look too close to Dr. Phil’s latest release.

We looked at a handful of typefaces and colour palettes in the concepts and in the end decided that cool tones on crisp white with spacious type, worked really well with a warm, inviting author photo. It struck just the right amount of balance of not intimidating the average health-minded individual while still feeling at home on a doctor’s bookshelf. We continued on with the feel through Dr. Judene’s website, which offers podcasts, blogs and info on her book signing appearances.