I first spotted Weronika’s work on my Facebook news feed when one of my friend’s liked a beautiful banner Weronika had prepared for a vegan blogger. I immediately knew that with her talent and attention to detail, we would end up with great pieces for our OpenBooks.com Classics 2016 project.
We started the OpenBooks.com Classics initiative because we were fed up with poor quality eBooks of classic pieces that could be downloaded easily but were disappointing in terms of their visual quality on mobile devices and had no interesting art to compliment their beauty. We thought that it would be really amazing to cooperate with some talented freelance designers and create new, interesting covers for the classic pieces readers most love.
Weronika charmed us with her meticulously drawn pieces of flora and fauna that were a little bit dark and mysterious.
“I’ve been drawing since I was a kid. I love dark, disturbing and seditious art. I’m inspired by nature, animals and plants as well as artists such as Godmachine, Joshua Belanger, Sin-eater, Caitlin Hackett and Christina Mrozik,” Weronika says.
In Poland, Weronika is known for her work on T-shirt designs and album covers, but she hadn’t made illustrations for book covers before. We decided to start with two covers for classic horror pieces, which showed what a versatile artist Weronika really is.
Of course the horror world was comfortable for Weronika, but there was one challenge around the corner that we were sure would surprise her - Jane Austen!
Working with OpenBooks.com is very satifying and can be challanging as well. I can illustrate classic books and new releases, and I have to step out of my comfort zone and work on something different to what I’m used to. This allows me to develop my skills and imagination.
And that’s why OpenBooks.com Classics 2016 is now promoting a beautiful Jane Austen series with covers designed by our brilliant illustrator.
Weronika lives and develops her career as a freelance artist in Budapest. She works with paper as well as digital painting. She also designs graphic materials for Open Cages - a Polish association that aims to end factory farming (fur, meat and dairy) and promotes veganism. We’re very happy that she’s been able to find time in her schedule to design such great pieces, like the cover of Graham Masterton’s short story “Beholder”, which took several hours to make:
I’m happy to work for a bookstore that’s caught the modern vibe, allows clients to set the price after reading and cares about authors and artists,” says Weronika.
We hope that our cooperation will continue and that we’ll be able to produce more great eBooks for you together.
If you want to see more of Weronika’s work follow W.Kolinska on Facebook.
And if you’d like to cooperate with her on a cover for your own book contact us at ula@openbooks.com
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