The Shades of Magic is a trilogy by New York Times bestselling author V.E. Schwab, published by Tor Books.

The first book, A Darker Shade of Magic, hit shelves in February 2015, followed by A Gathering of Shadows in 2016 and A Conjuring of Light in 2017. In the same year it was announced that Sony won a bidding war over the movie rights to A Darker Shade of Magic.

For the book covers, designer and illustrator Will Staehle chose the font Polyspring by PintassilgoPrints. He comments:

Once we locked on this design we went back and forth on a few possible type solutions, but ended up with this narrow serif. Lettering that feels a bit turn-of-the-century, while also creating a nice contrast from the very strong graphic circles of the cover.

Read more about the cover design process of the book A Darker Shade of Magic and see other cover approaches commented by Tor Books Art Director Irene Gallo on Tor’s website:

It is both playful and smart, sugesting that there is a really fun and clever adventure to be had.