The final artwork cover design for The Devil Within.

Being commissioned to shoot and design a book cover is a real honour but with that honour comes pressure. Pressure to produce a cover design striking enough to catch the eye of potential customers on the shelves of a book shop, online retailers’ websites or in any article or review the book may garner. When it’s the cover of an autobiography, there’s the added pressure of wanting to please the subject of the book, especially when the subject, Rugby League player Malcolm Alker, has a fearsome reputation on and off the rugby pitch.

The brief itself was simple. I had the title, The Devil Within, and a steer that the book would be revealing Malcolm’s inner demons. The title also refers to Malcolm’s old club, Salford City Reds, (nicknamed the Red Devils long before their footballing neighbours, Manchester United, borrowed the idea for themselves) so the club had to be referenced in some way.

Malcolm Alker and his Devil Within gracing the front cover of Forty-20 magazine

So, with the brief in mind, I had to balance the need to show Malcolm the Rugby League player and also somehow reveal the darker side to his character alluded to by the title.

I decided early on that I’d like to somehow incorporate two different images of Malcolm to show the two sides to his character. I toyed with a few more complicated ideas before deciding on the simple of idea of simulating the cover of the book being torn away to reveal the ‘devil within.’

I just needed three things to be able to create this. Fortunately, I got them all. Malcolm still had a full strip from his final year at Salford, he had kept himself in good nick since he retired and he also was more than happy with the concept.

The shoot itself was simple, so simple in fact that we were able to shoot it in Malcolm’s front room.  While I had the final image in mind, I also made sure that I got a variety of shots for my old friend, Justin Case. Not for the first time, this proved worthwhile as I was also asked after the shoot to produce another version for the cover of Forty-20 magazine.

The real work came later, back home in front of the Mac. The cover comprises six separate elements; Malcolm as himself, Malcolm as the Devil, the tear, the flames around the Devil, the standard text and the burning text. It took a few late nights, but deep inside the levels of  Photoshop I think I found the devil within.

The Devil Within now available

The Devil Within is available direct from the publishers, Scratching Shed Publishing, or your local independent bookshop.

Vol 2 Issue 5 of Forty-20 magazine is available from Friday 11th May from any discerning newsagent, by postal subscription, again from Scratching Shed, and also in digital format which is also available for iOS devices at the iTunes Store and Android users are not left out either.