Designing happens in many stages. I often start with a design brief to acquire all necessary info, create moodboards to explore look/feel options, create two or more comps to give layout choices, then make several revisions of the final client choice before pushing the end product out the door. During that process some concepts are left behind never to see an audience, often never to even see outside the computer where they were conceived. I call these lost concepts "outtakes." I believe there is value even in these project remnants. Just because they weren't right for the client or ideal for one particular project, doesn't mean there isn't potential in them for future design work. In the spirit of showing more process, here are some of my outtakes from the past couple of years.

This was a book cover comp that I felt ticked many boxes, but was maybe too quirky. It also didn't include a color palette that was desired by the client. The final cover is in the "books" section of this website.

This book cover was similar in style to the author's previous cookbook, but didn't convey the idea of the 8x8 pan as well as the chosen layout (seen in "books" section of website).

Originally this was just a blk/wht gouache painting presented as a cover option for The Less We Touch. It was too ominous and didn't provide enough whitespace for the title. I chose to finish it up in Illustrator.

This was a concept for title pages for None Call Me Dad. Sometimes elements like this are just out of the project budget. It also wouldn't have fit with the cover design that was chosen.