Jess LaGreca

Jess is an award-winning book designer from the greater New York City area. She has past in-house experience at Simon & Schuster and Penguin Random House. She is currently working as the Senior Designer at Mayfly while freelancing for numerous clients. She and her fiancé reside in the greater Denver area.

When she isn't working on projects, you can typically find Jess trail-running, engrossed in a good book, or planning her next adventure.

Jess is available for commission and/or collaboration.

Partial Client List

Simon & Schuster, Mayfly, Scribe Media, Amplify Publishing Group, Altamira Studio, Better Day Books, Köehler Books, BenBella Books, 55 Fathoms Publishing, Next Journey Books, JL Collins, Jenna Fischer.

Accoldaes & Features

Communication Arts, PubWest Book Design Awards, 3x3 Magazine, Applied Arts, Red Bull Live Design, US Weekly, Highlark Magazine

Follow Jess | Email Jess

“I had a beautiful time working with Jess on my book cover. I had a feeling like she was looking into my soul for the right expression of the essence of my book. I told her that I like pinks and greens, and she got the perfect color scheme in the first round. We tried other colors, of course, but the first one was the best. I loved the flow of creativity and all the different options and ideas. Jess is a high-level, talented designer, and there is something special about her: she is full of joy, enthusiasm and she is extremely patient. I love my book cover and I am grateful that I was able to work with Jess on it.”

—Natalia Kaylin, author of The Soulful Home Design Guide

“I had the pleasure of working with Jess on the design of Listening for Growth, my first book. Before we started on the project, I suspected that I might be expecting too much. The brief was very conceptual and not at all like other business books. And, plus, I'm a fussy ex-designer myself. But Jess more than rose to the occasion. Her early directions were inspired and her fit and finish was superb. She was able to think big while designing for every last pixel. And I've gotten as much praise for the book's design as for the content inside.”

—Matty Wishnow, author of Listening for Growth

“I find loyalty, reliability, integrity and professionalism hard to come by these days. But Jess LaGreca has exceeded what integrity and professionalism are. She is the most responsive, hard-working and genuine person I've ever worked with. Her gifts of design and illustration are absolutely out of this world. I have faith that she'll be my designer forever.”

—Kelly Jett, author of an upcoming memoir

“I had the great pleasure of collaborating with Jess on the cover of my book Black Box: A Pregnancy Discrimination Memoir. Deciding on a book cover is a substantial milestone in writing a book, and Jess made the process fun and easy, which I appreciate, given how stressful publishing a book can be! Despite my ramblings and confusion about what I wanted, she asked all the right questions to guide us in landing on some initial designs, which helped us align on a final design quickly and smoothly. I couldn't be happier with the book cover Jess designed for Black Box, and I highly recommend her to other authors.”

—Chelsey Glasson, author of Black Box

“Working with Jess LaGreca was a wonderful experience. As a first time author, I didn't really know what I wanted, or what to expect. Jess led me through the process from start to finish with kindness and incredible patience. A wonderful designer, she worked with me until I was completely happy with the cover. I can't tell you how many compliments I am getting on it. When my second book is ready, I hope to work with her again!”

—Lynn Lobban, author of One of the Boys

“Jess was one of my most talented students at SVA. Her work was just outstanding, and she brought such an energy to the class that elevated everyone around her. She is so hardworking and determined, and it shows in her work. Nothing has been more pleasing for me as an adjunct professor than to see her grow to the book designer she is today. I share her website with my students as inspiration for when they work on their book jacket design projects—and they are truly inspired by her. So in that way, she is now helping me teach the craft she loves so much! I am probably one of her biggest fans and continue to look forward to every new book she designs.”

—Adam Greiss, Vice President, Global Head of Design/Creative Director at Morgan Stanley; Professor at the School of Visual Arts

“Jess LaGreca designed the cover of my second book. She took my raw concept and brought it to brilliant life, patiently refining it each step of the way. It turned out better than I had imagined. She is extremely talented and, equally important, extremely easy to work with. She is technically skilled, highly creative, and a careful listener. I’d work with her again anytime.”

—JL Collins, author of How I Lost Money in Real Estate Before It Was Fashionable

“I had the pleasure of working with Jess LaGreca on cover design and interior layout for two of my books, O My Beloved and Kali’s Bazaar. She was part of the team at Mayfly Design that did excellent work on my manuscripts. Jess is highly skilled and open to feedback, which made working with her very collaborative. I highly recommend her!”

—Lawrence Edwards, PhD, author of O My Beloved and Kali’s Bazaar

“I feel very fortunate that I got to work with Jess at Mayfly Design. When she was designing the cover for my novel, The Girl in Duluth, she listened carefully to my ideas and incorporated them into the design, but also offered her own expertise about design and current trends in the book industry, to make sure I knew exactly how to make my book stand out and shine. I would have been happy with any of the designs she came up with, but the one I chose has turned out to be a winner through and through—I’ve gotten countless compliments on it, including one potential reader who said, ‘I need this beautiful book on my shelf’ before she even knew what it was about. Readers are drawn to great design, and Jess knows how to draw them in.”

—Sigrid Brown, author of The Girl in Duluth

“Jess was fantastic to work with and did a beautiful book cover design for me. I'd love to work with her again!”

—Katy Landis, author of Losing Weight Is an Inside Job

“Say ‘yes’ to Jess! She will listen to the creative vision you have for your project and help bring it to life! When working on the covers for my books she was quick to listen and spent quality time putting together a few examples of the possibilities of what ‘could be.’ When we decided on the one, she efficiently got to work on making it perfect and made suggestions with her professional opinion and eye for detail. Then, bam! We had a book cover that doubled as a work of art on its own. I highly recommend using Jess because when you are done writing your book, you will want to write another just to have her design the cover for it! 5 stars!"

—Kathleen Rossi, author of He Carried Me

“I can’t say enough good things about working with Jess LaGreca on my book design. The cover and the internal design are artistic and engaging. Jess was so easy to work with: quick to respond and personable, she always understood what was most important to me in reflecting my concepts for my book. For the cover, I gave her three photographs of my own to work with and one word: “evocative,” and from that she produced an absolutely gorgeous cover design. It is true that a picture is worth a thousand words and in selling a book, the cover is worth even more. At all my book events, signings and readings, the cover of Finding Home: An Irish-American Story is the first thing that people comment on. They pick it up immediately. It is simply beautiful, and makes the viewer want to start reading. What more can a writer want? I highly recommend Jess LaGreca’s work.”

—Lois Farley Shuford, author of Finding Home

“Jess LaGreca brings deep listening and creative flair to her design engagements, as well as the patience and persistence to go back and forth on revisions until you have a design you truly love!”

—Alex Johnston, author of Money with Meaning

“Jess is absolutely amazing! She was an expert at guiding me through my cover design and I am in LOVE with what she created! She was also so excited about the project and I could feel her passion for her art and her desire to create an unforgettable cover. She gave me an incredible first round of concepts. I then sent over some other ideas showing exactly what I requested so I could see them played out. They didn't work at all, her designs were way better, but I really appreciated seeing the visuals to know they were not the right fit. The cover I ended up choosing was not at all what I thought I might want, but it is truly the right cover for my book! I am so grateful for Jess’ attention to detail, ability to listen to my feedback, while also guiding me with great professional advice! This is the first book I've written, but if I write any more, I will come back to Jess for cover design, no question! A resounding YES for recommending Jess!!!”

—Becca Christensen, author of I Call Bullshit

“Jess was a fantastic partner when she created my book cover for The Meaningful Manager: How to Manager What Matters. She deeply understood what I wanted to convey with my cover and provided three beautiful options to consider. I would have been so happy with any of the three, but one in particular was perfect. My only feedback was changing the typeface of the subtitle to match the title’s typeface. The color, composition, typeface, etc., were wonderful. As someone who has worked with designers throughout my career (and even designed some things), it’s exceptional for a designer to reach this level of satisfaction with her first draft. When I start to write my next book, she will be my first call. Thank you again, Jess!”

—Jeff Smith, PHD, author of The Meaningful Manager

“I had the privilege to work with Jess on my first published book: Reflections: A Book of Poems. Her approach to book design is collaborative, while balancing design initiatives with book practicability and readability. What sets Jess apart is her ability to produce a quality design (interior and exterior) without losing the spirit of the book. Furthermore, both our designs (Kindle and Print) were accepted on first submission (Amazon and IngramSpark), and I will not hesitate to utilize Jess in my future projects.”

—Itai David Njanji, author of Reflections