In 2025, I had the amazing opportunity to work at the Canadian Pavilion at the Osaka World Expo where I met many other talented and amazing Canadians. One of my coworkers, M.J. DiRocco, is an experienced playwright, and I had the honour of designing the cover for his latest script "合コン (gokon) Six by Three" which tells a story of different groups of people, cultures, and outlooks on life converging together.
As one of the first to hear about the plot of the story, I immediately had the idea to create an abstract design of different lives and paths, mixing and intertwining together.
I had created several other potential design covers, but this is the idea that resonated with both the author and me the most.
Once the concept was decided, I brought my rough sketch into Illustrator to create the lineart that would represent the 2 groups of 3 that meet in a bar, and the stories of the 3 different couples that come together.
I used the different shapes, neatness, and energy of the converging "squiggles" on each side to represent the personality of each character and the way the relationship between them connects. If you read the script, I wonder if you can tell which character represented where on the cover!
We also played with different colours of typography and ended up settling on a black and white colour scheme with simple text. At the end of the day, the story was a bit dark and open-ended, and we wanted the cover to reflect this mood.
合コン Six by Three Cover Print Layout
And here is the final version and layout! Off to the printers to bring "合コン Six by Three" to the world!
It was a super fun project to work on, as it allowed me to experiment with illustration for a practical project. A lot of my designs tend to lean towards cute, so it was a learning experience to work with a client request that was based on a more serious tone.
The printed book! Thank you M.J.!
