We had the opportunity to catch up with the designer briefly and she shared the below commentary on the project:

"For the Alexia Tarabotti series, this was one of the first books I started when I joined the Orbit team. The author, Gail Carriger, had done some research on her own (I love a design-minded author) and found a photo of Donna Ricci, the “goth supermodel”, in an awesome victorian kind of steampunk outfit, and sent it to us. The image was a near perfect starting point, so we just decided to see if we could use that very image. Donna was very happy to be our Alexia, so after a little Photoshop magic to make her look a little less punk and a little more proper Victorian, we were off to a pretty good start. The foggy London backdrop was a no brainer for the story and feel. As you can see from the in-progress image, we initially went very Victorian, very steampunk-feeling. I even designed a medal that I was going to use on the back (the octopus is drawn from the story)...but ultimately it was too old-timey, a little too dark. If you get a chance to read the books, they’re hilarious. They’re kind of a Victorian comedy of errors, just with werewolves and vampires. And the heroine, Alexia, is more plucky than dark. So with a little less “steam” and a little more “punk”, plus some type with a nod to British punk, we came to the “Victorian punk” kind of aesthetic of Soulless, Changeless, and Blameless.

Once the look was set for Soulless, it’s just been a matter of getting the right picture of “Alexia” in the right backdrop for the book: at the railing of a dirigible for book 2, and in Paris, ideally with an ornithopter, for book 3. I’ve been dying to do some more behind-the-scenes posts on the Orbit blog, because I know my friends & family love to see that kind of thing, and it’s fun to do. So I got some good screen-capture software for my computer, kind of organized all the images I had for book 3, and had at it. Let me tell you, I never knew how many times a day I checked my email until poor Eric Westpheling had to edit them all out of the video. He did a fantastic job condensing at least 6 hours down into 2 minutes. And yet focusing in on the fun bits....like when the author told me the Eiffel Tower wasn’t built yet. Or when I realized I had to retouch the cars out of the Paris background. I love working on this series because they’re so much fun. Donna isn’t just a model, she also has a steampunk website, Clockwork Couture, so she’s always looking for new props for the next story. Hopefully Alexia Tarabotti will have a lot more adventures, because designing them is a lot of fun. And the stories are great – I tear through the manuscripts as soon as I get them from the editor." —Lauren Panepinto

Lauren also shared an earlier cover design comp for the first book in the series, Soulless:

And the original photograph of the model Donna Ricci that started it all: 

Below are the cover and spine designs for the three books in the Alexia Tarabotti series:

credits for cover designs: