Omar
Chadli

Book Cover Designer & Publishing Design Specialist
  • 12+ Years Experience
  • 99designs Top Designer
  • KDP & IngramSpark
  • Authors & Publishers Worldwide

Book covers and print-ready publishing files for authors and publishers: eBook, paperback, hardcover, dust jacket and audiobook, prepared for KDP and IngramSpark.

Request a Cover Quote View Selected Work

Selected book covers

Front covers for fiction and nonfiction, designed for independent authors and publishers. Open a project to see the publishing work behind it: full wraps, dust jackets, hardcovers, other editions and mockups.

The Well
one story,
five printed panels

A thriller about a race for a universal cure, and a publishing project that has kept moving for years.

R. Chapman Wesley · High Top Publishing · Thriller / adventure

The Well by R. Chapman Wesley: full dust jacket with flaps, a burning earth on the front, endorsements on the back and the author biography on the back flap.
  • Back flap — author photograph and biography
  • Back cover — endorsements, publisher mark, ISBN barcode
  • Spine — title, author, publisher
  • Front cover — concept, title, foreword credit
  • Front flap — description and pull quote
The full dust jacket of The Well with flaps, from the back flap on the left to the front flap on the right.

The problem

The story moves between a stolen virus, a meteorite fragment and a mission in the Amazon. A single image had to hold all of that and still say thriller at the size of a retailer thumbnail. Anything literal would have shrunk into noise.

The answer was one object everyone already recognises: the planet, burning along one edge, with the Chinese character from the legend branded into the fire. Read large it is cinematic. Read small it is a burning earth, which is enough.

The typography

The title sits in a high-contrast serif at the widest measure the trim allows, with a thin line of setup type above it and the author’s name anchoring the base. A comet crossing behind the letters gives the flat field depth and pulls the eye toward the title.

The same face runs down the spine and through the panels, so the printed object reads as one piece of typography rather than five separate layouts.

The production

The back of a book like this is dense: eight endorsements, an author biography and photograph, a publisher mark, the ISBN barcode and a priced description panel. Each element was given its own measure and a fixed hierarchy, so the copy stays readable at print size.

The night sky runs unbroken across the whole surface, with the star field kept quiet behind the text and the barcode placed on a clear field for scanning.

  • The Well by R. Chapman Wesley: front cover with the earth burning in space and a comet crossing the title.
    Front cover
  • The Well by R. Chapman Wesley: hardcover wrap with the burning earth on the front, the title on the spine and the book description on the back.
    Hardcover wrap
  • A Fonte, the Portuguese-language edition of The Well: full cover with the same burning earth and Portuguese title and back-cover copy.
    Portuguese-language edition (A Fonte)

Editions and continuing work

An ongoing project over several years: the original front cover, a full dust jacket, a hardcover wrap and a Portuguese-language edition, all developed from the same visual identity.

See the full project

Recognition for the book

  • 2024 American Fiction Awards — Winner, Adventure Fiction
  • 2024 American Fiction Awards — Finalist, General Thriller
  • 2024 International Book Awards — Finalist, Visionary Fiction

In their words

Reviews from book cover clients.

  • “Both my wife and I liked this design from the very beginning. It was the first design submitted and we continued to like it throughout the contest (about 50 designs submitted). We liked the simplicity and the way it made us feel when we looked at it. The font was perfect.”

    J R HoffmanAuthor

  • “Omar Chadli is very professional. Quick to respond. Easy to talk to. Brings in enriching ideas. Get's the job done. I can highly recommend him.”

    Ulrich SchoisswohlAuthor

  • “Omar-chadli was super to work with on my book cover design. He took time to understand my brief and preferences, and he was always responsive, professional, willing to send variations in his design concept.”

    Marty Mitchell

Designing books since 2013

Twelve years of professional design work, most of it spent on books and the material that surrounds them.

A cover is not decoration. It is the first argument a book makes for itself.

I’m Omar Chadli, a book cover and publishing designer based in Morocco. My work spans thrillers, literary fiction, memoir, academic publishing, business books and inspirational nonfiction, for independent authors, small presses and publishing teams in several countries.

I don’t apply one signature style to every project. Each cover is built around the book’s audience, genre, message and the shelf it has to compete on — which is why a German book on conflict and Buddhism and a sports memoir don’t look like they came from the same hand.

The work combines concept development, typography, photographic composition and print production. That last part matters: spine width, bleed, trim, barcode area and file setup are part of the design, not an afterthought handed to someone else.

Experience
12+Years of professional design work
Specialism
BooksThe main specialism, not a sideline
Genres
GenresFiction, nonfiction, academic, literary
Formats
FormatsPrint, eBook, hardcover, audiobook

Tools: Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign for publishing work, with Lightroom, Premiere Pro, After Effects and DaVinci Resolve for image and motion material around a launch.

From first concept to final print file

Book covers and the publishing files that follow them. Most projects grow into a small family of formats: a paperback wrap, an eBook, a hardcover or jacket, and an audiobook edition.

Book Cover Design

Front cover concept, typography and image work, developed for the genre, the reader and the format the book will actually be sold in.

  • Concept development
  • Typography
  • Photographic compositing
  • Retouching

Complete Print Wraps

Front, spine and back designed as one printed surface, with the back cover treated as an editorial layout rather than leftover space.

  • Back-cover copy layout
  • Endorsements and author biography
  • Spine typography
  • Barcode and publisher areas

Hardcover & Dust Jackets

Case covers and jackets designed as physical objects, with flaps, spine and author copy set to the printer’s template.

  • Hardcover case wraps
  • Dust jackets with flaps
  • Flap copy layout

eBook & Audiobook Covers

Each format adapted properly: eBook covers checked at retailer thumbnail size, and square audiobook covers rebuilt for the format rather than cropped from the print cover.

  • eBook covers
  • Square audiobook covers
  • Retailer-ready files

Book Series Design

When a book is the first of several, the cover becomes a template: fixed positions, a repeatable image treatment and a spine that lines up on a shelf.

  • Series cover systems
  • Templates for later volumes
  • Numbered spine systems

KDP / IngramSpark Production

Files prepared to the printer’s specification, with the spine calculated from page count and paper stock.

  • KDP-ready files
  • IngramSpark-ready files
  • Bleed, trim and safe margins
  • Print-ready PDFs

Additional publishing support

Alongside the cover, I can also prepare publishing layout, interior diagrams and graphics, 3D book mockups, author marketing and launch graphics, posters, and catalogue and print design, built from the same artwork and typography.

How a project runs

Four stages, with feedback built into each one. Most covers move from brief to print-ready files without drama.

  1. 01

    Discover

    The manuscript, the reader, the genre, the competing titles on the same shelf and what the book needs to do commercially.

  2. 02

    Concept

    Visual directions explored properly: imagery, typography and hierarchy, tested at full size and at thumbnail size.

  3. 03

    Refine

    One direction developed through structured rounds of feedback, down to letter spacing and colour.

  4. 04

    Deliver

    Final files for the formats you publish in: print wrap, eBook, hardcover, audiobook and promotional versions.

Experience

Design work since 2013, focused on publishing. Projects arrive through design platforms and directly from authors and publishers.

  • Professional design experience 12+ years, since 2013
  • Main specialism Book cover design
  • Publishing experience Fiction and nonfiction
  • Production Print and digital formats
  • Platforms 99designs · Upwork
  • Recognition Top Designer status on 99designs

Working remotely with international clients means the process has to be clear: a written brief, dated rounds of revision, and files that arrive ready for the printer.

Several of the projects shown here were developed over multiple editions and formats for the same author.

Have a book in progress?

Tell me about your book, audience, publishing format and timeline, and I’ll reply with a quote and a suggested approach.

Publishing format