Falon Ballards’s Something Wicked

The Campaign

Challenge: Support Ballard’s genre pivot from contemporary romance to fantasy romance, highlight a special edition package, and expand Ballard’s readership.

Strategy: Develop a playful visual identity inspired by Maria’s signature wit and charm across paid media, social, web, OOH, and influencer outreach mailers.

Impact: An instant USA Today bestseller.

For her pivot from contemporary romance to romantasy, I wanted to give author, Falon Ballard, a set of designs that felt unlike anything she’s received for her books before.

At the start of the campaign she sent over some inspiration, pictured below, and I could not wait to take the art nouveau style and run with it.

My job as a marketing designer is made so easy when I get to play with covers as stunning as this one. I was lucky enough to be able to reuse the gorgeous artwork in all of the marketing assets.

Jacket design by Sanny Chiu and illustrations by Adelle Kincel

Inspiration provided by the author

Exclusive
promotional
mailer designs

The main interior and exterior design of the mailer box was my absolute favorite challenge to execute in this campaign. I wanted to push the existing design scheme further into the art nouveau style.

Here, I blend organic curved shapes with the whiplash lines of the vines, and use the unexpected type movement to add a touch of asymmetry. The final compositions are unexpected but still balanced with the addition of flower ornaments and added playful type interactions, all characteristic of art nouveau while still maintaining the spirit of the cover design.

I designed custom hand fans, foiled invitations, and a sticker sheet to go inside the mailer box.