i turned shakespeare ultra modern (a cover redesign)

Redesigning classic book covers. Would Shakespeare survive the romance publishing industry? The first 500 people to use my link will get a 1 month free trial of Skillshare: skl.sh/itsdivya05241
Helping old, unknown authors sell more books. You're welcome! Welcome to the book cover redesign and reimagining series where I teach you a few things about book and recent design trends but mostly here for banter. First up, William Shakespeare's new cover editions.
Romance book covers are heavily illustrated now and in such fierce competition and a saturated book piblishing market how can we redesign classics to fit in with the kids?
timestamps
00:00 would shakespeare survive the romance publishing industry?
01:00 ideas, sketching
02:47 composition of a romance book cover
08:11 fonts and colour
09:41 evaluation
watch all my 'how to make a trashy cover' series: how to design a trashy book cover
• how to design a trashy...
cover redesign series: • redesigns
• • • • • • • • • • •
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[@solace8355]

This is painfully spot on for modern contemporary romance covers. I’d like to see you parody dark romance covers- they’re usually just a mostly black background with an item and the book name, maybe a tagline thrown in there. Bonus points if the item is edgy

[@rainygreymornings]

Perfect for Wuthering Heights ✨

[@queenoffabulous2156]

Or a close up of a gave in a suit adjusting his tie or cracking his knuckles

[@itsdivyag]

WUTHERING HEIGHTS HAD A TWILIGHT-TYPE COVER AGES AGO AND IT WORKED. I BOUGHT IT.

[@itsdivyag]

writing all these ideas down...

[@leboone]

Don't forget the skulls and roses😂

[@DanyUiy]

She really did that for Bill's career, so nice to see Divya helping small artists

[@itsdivyag]

Bill should NOT be a short name for William i'm putting this up as a government petition to be debated

[@whatalsaid]

The modern romance covers have the same energy as the corporate art style. And speaking of corporate art style, you should do another video whenre you turn classic book covers into corporate art. That one is one of my favorite videos you've done.

[@itsdivyag]

Omg! I had to private that video sad. maybe I'll return to it again one day! Or make it available exclusively some other way

[@kwowka]

I think Dante’s inferno could use a glow up. That book is literally just self insert bible fanfic where all his enemies from life are tortured and his historical crush tells him he’s very smart and special. Dante Alighieri would pay for wattpad.

[@itsdivyag]

it could use a man shirtless surrounded by flames

[@torenielsen9993]

Star-Crust Lovers. They work at competing pizzerias. I'd love to see a cover for Edgar Allen Poe's Berenice. Aristocratic nerd marries his sick cousin, then becomes maniacally obsessed with her teeth. Thanks for another great video.

[@edelysie]

I don't know if you were making a joke about the movie, but just in case you didn't know, there IS a romeo and juliet movie about them working in competing pizzerias 😂 it's called little italy

[@torenielsen9993]

@@edelysie Damn, there's nothing new under the sun.

[@marionapina]

I need her to do this

[@lurdesoliveira]

Berenice!! Yes!!

[@daniellemhall1358]

Oooh as a brand new Poe fan, I thank you for the recommendation 😂😂😂

[@readyfreddie1256]

that’s… actually so impressive. it’s like every romance cover, but nicer tbh

[@itsdivyag]

omg the romance covers on the shelves are so gorgeous. but ty!!

[@morigaena333]

How old were you guys when you found out that Romeo and Juliet didn’t have a balcony in it?

[@dablloydtruther]

today years old

[@nikkosanart]

what?! what are you talking about

[@sophiastamper9672]

Literally last week 😅

[@silvermeasuringspoons6462]

Now

[@morigaena333]

@@nikkosanart eighth grade teacher explained it to me- the description of it in the play (and I think the time period?) is a window, not a balcony

[@orionh5535]

The g stands for Gnomeo!

[@itsdivyag]

cursed film ... 10/10

[@RealTardskii]

Masterpiece of filmmaking.

[@naastyaaaaaaaaa]

10:02 Love the divided in half version. Really sells the reds vs blues rivalry💙🩷

[@itsdivyag]

yesss i had too much analysis paralysis at that point but i have a soft spot for that one too

[@jasminv8653]

I FEEL YOU on goddamn COLOURS. i love love love drawing i HATE colouring them i just DONT GET IIIITTTT 😭😭😭😭😭 it was a good ad hook

[@itsdivyag]

no please w colours i feel so like. ??? lemme just do this in pencil yeah

[@Mario_Angel_Medina]

If you think about it, if Shakespeare was alive today he would probably be writting the scripts for Netflix romcoms starring Vanessa Hudgens... and also probably films about Roman emperors that neckbeards complain "aren't historically accurate"

[@itsdivyag]

VANESSA HUDGENNWRKW!?!!

[@Mario_Angel_Medina]

@@itsdivyag if _The Princess Switch_ trilogy isn't a shakespearean masterpiece, I don't know what it is

[@tamara10]

Marketing problem no more, old mr William is about to see an increase in sales with the new cover(s)

[@itsdivyag]

shakespeare PAY ME

[@Nebulousart]

divya i genuinely think you should pursue becoming a cover artist!! this has to be your best piece yet, it's amazing!

[@itsdivyag]

I freelance! 👀

[@kavya12kohli]

Wow! It's a fantastic cover! I would probably buy this, assuming a smutty read in the guise of a cutesy cover. That's what my brain envisions with 'Bite' in the title. Or maybe vampires too. You know what, now that I think about it, vampires would work with this cover too. He's asking permission to enter the house. She says Bite my thumb (because neck wounds are very telling). You are a fantastic cover designer! Have you worked on any covers for other novels? I'd love to see those.

[@itsdivyag]

I have a whole playlist of cover design videos in the description of this one! I also do client work if that's what you're asking

[@kavya12kohli]

@@itsdivyag Oh yes, I meant client work. Which books have you worked on professionally?

[@toastonmitchell2636]

Jane Austen next??

[@queenoffabulous2156]

Darcy and Lizzie would absolutely be the standing back to back cover

[@itsdivyag]

I wanna do a full collection instead of just one of the books

[@toastonmitchell2636]

@@itsdivyag that would be so awesome!!!

[@tatianaaa4569]

I remember seeing those modern Shakespeare covers in Waterstones a couple of weeks ago. If it wasn’t Twelfth Night I would’ve absolutely bought the tumblr-fanartified Shakespeare cover oml.

[@itsdivyag]

i love those covers sm but we all know im not reading shakespeare of my own free will when i can watch the movies yk... even that i won't be doing anytime soon... only rewatching She's The Man for me... whcih is loosely shakespeare

[@ITZ_VIOLET_]

Video Idea: resigning every book you read in school such as Lord of the Flies, Catcher and the Rye, Of Mice and Men, Scarlet Letter, ext.

[@zamiyaFlow]

7:31 I take solace in the redeeming fact that not even AI, with all of it's nicked and misappropriated prowess, can write something so bad

[@girl_offline]

i would unironically buy this

[@nezukochan86]

That pink/purple cover is beautiful. I'd actual pick that up in a bookstore without reading the synopsis fr.

[@oliviakalleberg9578]

I thought the final design with the split colors looked so good 😍

[@itsdivyag]

that one was walking down the runway

[@mondenkind8604]

I love the miscommunication trope! can't wait to read this book and see how they resolve this and get back together!

[@asudebirtane8243]

Please booktokify some works by classic Russian authors it would be incredible. Also ever since I started university in graphic design your videos are not just entertaining, they're supporting my learning process soo much, thank you❤

[@itsdivyag]

omg congrats on uni! i did a postgrad in design and it was a lot of work but really amazing. i hope you have the best time!!

[@asudebirtane8243]

@@itsdivyag thank you, this means a lot♥️

[@ordinarydream3r]

for some reason unbeknownst to me, i really want to see you make a cover for the count of monte cristo lol

[@miahdaa]

Honestly, I love all the covers -- if I had to choose one over the other, I might be leaning more toward the blue one I think you should help out our gothic romance girlie Charlotte Brontë with her book Jane Eyre

[@itsdivyag]

Yessss shes been struggling in sales recently for sure

[@moonlight_moth]

This new cover is stunning. I’m begging you to make this into a series. Side Note : I’d love to see a redesign for the Picture of Dorian Grey or Pride and Prejudice.

[@rosalindmccollum6012]

As a huge Romeo and Juliet fan (I will defend it until the day I die), I love this, it is so cute! (Also, biting one's thumb was the equivalent of flipping someone off.)(And there absolutley is spice, it's just all in old-day slang, so you don't notice, but there are sooooo many sexual comments in it)

[@apollineunow]

omg i’ve been missing the book cover videos

[@itsdivyag]

more on the way! and general design videos too... perchance...

[@isthatachicken]

I would 100% believe this is a real book cover. You are getting too good.

[@adinaldojr]

gurl you should do wuthering heights

[@itsdivyag]

my enemy book

[@mcnomer]

omg indecision in drawing is literally me one thing that has been helping is that for the last couple of months I've been doing a daily 10 min timed painting using some random prompts and honestly, it's stressful, but I feel like it works?? Through the blind panic you kinda just have to go with your gut and while the first couple are kinda rough, I've definitely got a bit better at making those decisions on colour or composition so maybe that could help you too but anyway, thanks for the great video and I love the blue version!!

[@itsdivyag]

OOO where do you get the prompts from? yess i think unguided is also so hard to narrow down like where do we go from heree.... i need a brief!!!

[@mcnomer]

agreed! I always need something to go off so I've been using the inktober prompts from various years and they're pretty varied (ignoring the fact it's not october lol)

[@CheyeW13]

love your color redesigns but also love ur video essays. i've also seen a lotta growing distaste for the cartoonish/flat color romance cover. it'd be cool to see you split the difference and maybe do a meaningful cover redesign of a modern romance (or any genre) you like/recommend.

[@hiddenkard9559]

where are you authors? hire my girl as the cover artist for your next book!!

[@lpark6048]

o m g i could see the split cover edition on tiktok tables you’ve outdone urself again

[@nicole2462]

I have been in a creative slump for literal years and you described it so perfectly, I've never heard someone describe how I feel with creative projects before. BUT you got me tempted to try to write modernisation of Shakespeare's plays, just have a shot at yassifying them

[@Annikidiary]

It turned out so pretty😭😭

[@itsdivyag]

it turned out decent but not what i had in my head but it's ok we move...

[@ianthemouton9210]

i love your videos and i would also thank you for all the effort you put into adding subtitles

[@beckyginger3432]

I love the pink - but i love pink in all cases

[@jerneymantel7826]

i liked the 50/50 background him with blue and her at the purple side. you could say it shows thaat they are at opposite sides

[@itsdivyag]

so truee!!

[@laiatezenas3300]

I am SHOOK! What a glow-up! 😳😍

[@intersexcryptid]

I can relate on the feeling like you're not getting it and feeling self-conscious about art stuff. But your covers always turn out awesome, so you're more talented than you think! I think the colors on both covers looked really, really good.

[@edlundjo]

love this!!

[@corinnes.7619]

Hold up, that is way too good 😂 Well done Divya!

[@thebookstamp9976]

Bite my thumb is the perfect title

[@honeysoobs]

this is amazing

[@Loverera2023]

I love these videos so much. I’ve been having such a tough day, as I’m graduating soon. Thanks for the much needed laughs, and lightheartedness. Next… I wouldn’t mind seeing a tale of two cities

[@itsdivyag]

congratulations!!! education is so tough that's so amazing i hope you had a better day and i hope the next days are brighter for you

[@jinhaoxie2302]

Love the purple x

[@Asomii]

Girl havent seen Penguin Staged book collection yet

[@itsdivyag]

no i diiddd they're so gorgeous. i just had this ideas ages ago and i was too late. we move tho!

[@sakur4k777]

I’d love to see you design some more covers! Extra hard; and sell the kids on some tragic romance Keats poetry

[@andrewbrasfield1104]

I like the 2 color version, but I wanna see what it would look like with the pink on the left and blue on the right

[@emmakate4313]

I hate this sm but also it’s so creative and well done!! (The aspect I hate is not anything you did, just that the reading culture online SUCKS

[@AsherIsReading]

Omg pls share where you got that’s star glasses chain!!

[@the_musicghost]

i was reading romeo and juliet the other day and it was unexpectidly entertaining :'D

[@LaMelJW]

If I were Willie, I would be so grateful to you!

[@banksparenteau7779]

Some historians have spectulated that Romeo & Juliet might not have been intended as a romance, but instead a cautionary tale about getting too carried away with your emotions over someone you just met. If you read the book this theory seems likely as Romeo is shown to rather routinely "fall in love" with various woman before losing interest and finding someone new to "fall in love" with. In the beginning of the book (before he meets Juliet) he is infatuated with another woman (I believe her name is Rosalie, or something like that,) then he meets Juliet and confesses his "love" for he instantly, as soon as his friends hear him talking about Juliet they are so confused and basically ask him "wait, what about that other girl, I thought you liked her?"

[@toyo.saketoba]

I think i like the pink background better! It tricks me to think that its not a tragedy (even though its written right there) and will make the readers suffer more lol

[@itsdivyag]

yesss MAXIMUM misleading impact

[@rissak919]

This turned out amazing

[@laikacons]

R&J is a romcom to me, so I agree with the cover art

[@marionapina]

I would legit buy your book covers

[@briellejade._]

do you make covers for other people by any chance? sorry if this is a dumb question i’m new to your channel but i do write romance and your drawing skills are really impressive lol

[@itsdivyag]

I do client work also! Shoot me an email

[@lilygdsn]

This is perfect omg

[@corn_breas]

WOAH

[@itsdivyag]

WOAH

[@itsdivyag]

also first 🙂‍↕️

[@corn_breas]

@@itsdivyag 🤭 indeed

[@justmahir]

I loved this cover!!! Urmm where do I buy one?!

[@acciocreativity]

the screenshot of someone asking how much spice babel has is sending me so bad

[@xxzcfdxc]

😂😂😂 this was spot on

[@e443productions9]

Easy answer to the covers problem: Sell all of them as different special editions.

[@itsdivyag]

max out the money and shrink people's wallets beautiful capitalist mindset!

[@e443productions9]

@@itsdivyag Bingo!

[@Little_shop_by_the_sea]

Who thinks this should be a series ⬇️

[@pbdthe_catperson]

I would love to see you design some Edgar Allan Poe stories or poems

[@Littleghostman4]

you should do little women next, if it were published today the romance drama girlies would eat that up.

[@itsdivyag]

little women have soo many nice covers

[@muskaan3711]

Do one for Jane Austen pls!!

[@Emma-gy3gb]

We need Twilight with a modern romance cover 👀🍎

[@variablecheesecake]

i would love to see what you would do with picture of dorian gray or alice’s adventures in wonderland

[@Squattypottyllc]

Now you should do the reverse! Make new modern books, romance or not, look like literary classics

[@itsdivyag]

ooo!!

[@thefairyafrodite617]

I would definitely buy this book based purely off the cover and the Shakespeare reference in the title, only to be shocked that it is indeed a Shakespeare play😂❤

[@itsdivyag]

me buying an edition of wuthering heights aged 12 cause it was marketed as twilight

[@spicynic5450]

Honestly the old romance novels with covers that's just a picture of a long haired hunk in a white shirt on a horse is better then the modern contemporary romance covers lol

[@jiya8472]

would looooove to see dostoevsky as a modern cover but since it isn't romance maybe wuthering heights? also that cover was fantastic and i missed your videos!

[@Tatiana_Palii]

We have Dostoyevsky and other classics in modern YA-oriented covers in Russia! They usually even have their own shelves in the bookshops.

[@Misbil_]

I want you to react to random wattpad book covers 😭 that would be hilarious

[@itsdivyag]

omg idea!! i'll put it on the list

[@Misbil_]

@@itsdivyag yay looking forward to it🫡😤

[@britneycampbell8696]

“BITE MY THUMB”💀💀💀

[@sheriffboss6544]

first athpo uploads , and now its divya uploads this is almost a perfect day!

[@sheriffboss6544]

and its a cover design vid YESSSS

[@sheriffboss6544]

now all this talk about shakespear covers makes me wanna see a cover for much ado about ntohing. beatrice and benedick my beloveds

[@sheriffboss6544]

my fave out of the solid cover ones it s the pinkish purplish ones. it fits more wiht the hue of the petals . idk if hues the right word but its more complementary overall. althoughi am in love wiht the split colour design as it hints towards the differences in the vie w of the relationship between romeo and juliet . juliet seeing it through rose colur glasses passion etc romeo ,,,being romeo but then again i cant remember the last time i read the play so i might be wrong character anlysis wise

[@sheriffboss6544]

also dracula . dracula would be funy . its just a cover between jonathan and his wife wmina because they ARE THE ULTIMATE COUPLE and then theres like dracula is trying to get revenge will they be abel to get out alive.... or something. actually that book besidsides the horror stuff has bits of romcom in it even if its like for the start of the book. lucy gets proposed by the three suitors on the same day for heavans sake !!! one of them is a cowboy for goodness sakes !!. actually wait . not a romcom i am just obbsessed with dracula carry on . i wasnt lying about jonmina tho they are couple goals jonathan collects train schedules for her! mina bloody organises the dracula hunting crew!

[@sheriffboss6544]

sorry for the rant anyways . the part about beig so indecisive about your own work and inherently not trusting yourself speaks to me . i. am like that too but with writing. been trying to write since i was like 12 have i ever no. someday ... someday...

[@alwaysgettingthere]

alternate title: By Any Other Name

[@kennyw3nny]

im gonna regret this but i will tweak if the illiad or any hymn or epic was done in a parody dark edgy booktok cover

[@itsdivyag]

omg showww

[@kennyw3nny]

@@itsdivyag i mean blood death and gore thats sure to get middleaged suburban moms to buy it 🥰🥰🥰

[@kennyw3nny]

blood n war crimes it fits the dark romance genre already 🫶

[@CherryBlossom-lg9nq]

Lmaooo the way that romeo and juliet isn't even a romance-

[@gg_Talon]

Divya, watching your videos makes my day every time

[@itsdivyag]

omggg

[@pauieeepau]

I don't even think about color theory. I just find a pretty color palette and eyedrop, or I eyedrop the reference and adjust. I already think too much when I draw lol😅

[@itsdivyag]

please... helpp...

[@xstar4698]

Bro ain't no way someone asked if Babel was spicy.

[@romypotash7114]

I think no ine read sheakspeer because it was never ment to be read, now we have the internet , it's to easy to find cast readings and preformnced. That beeibg said, i would really like to see more of this kindes of videos

[@PoppyOxymoron]

Love it

[@MwelwaOnCos]

I just showed my girlfriend this video and I told her Divya is the only girl she should be worried about

[@oliviaharris1245]

in a way, romeo & juliet has everything: it has tragedy, comedy, and romance. it's a romantic tragecomedy which you imulated very well

[@itsdivyag]

romtracom

[@witchology]

0:10 would he eat up the GORLS

[@thecuttestgyal]

6:10 why the fnaf song?

[@clownestfan]

Nice

[@itsdivyag]

Very nice

[@clownestfan]

@@itsdivyag :O

[@ghostlyamy]

i wonder how you could ""update"" something like wuthering heights or jane eyre with a deeply unlikeable male love interest

[@sillygo0oser]

Everyone complains about the modern covers but I absolutely loath the old mainstream where the cover were real people, the guy usually shirtless, and overall cringe level of them. These new covers are at least discreet.

[@itsdivyag]

i like a lot of them!!

[@maritareads5229]

Who fucking asked for spice in Babel?? 😭

[@andresmaldonado8935]

Isn’t Juliet supposed to be like 13 year old?

[@ramisadiya4452]

make a book cover with real people's pictures. but make it desirable

[@isthatachicken]

👁👄👁☕

[@JayGTheAwkwardBookworm]

The amount of stress this gave you 😩

[@itsdivyag]

honestly that's me but with every video on this channel which is why my upload schedule is lacking lately but we moveeee

[@Jasmine270]

This is so cursed haha