Mike Trent

Mike Trent – Designer

I am an award-winning designer with decades of experience in creating covers and packaging for books, including 21 years at Wiley.

Overview

I am an art director and a cover designer with more than 20 years of experience in book publishing - leading in-house design teams, developing bespoke designs, creating packaging for series of books, and managing brands. In my most recent role at Wiley, I personally designed 100+ creative projects and directed 200+ projects designed by in-house teams or vendors each year.


I work quickly, collaboratively, and am committed to a design process that begins with understanding your needs, quickly ideating a range of solutions, refining the best options and finalizing the perfect cover for your book.

Services
Non-Fiction
Comics Non-Fiction Computers & Internet Education & Reference Math & Science Photography Self-Help & Self-Improvement Technology
Languages
English

Work experience

Self-employed

Jan, 2023 — Present

Wiley

May, 2001 — Nov, 2022 (over 21 years)
• Research, develop, and execute book product packaging from concept to production for more than 500 unique products including book covers, boxed sets, product bundles, and displays from the For Dummies, Visual, and Sybex brands and Professional Technology and other Trade publishing lines representing more than $60M in revenue annually • Supervise and manage creative work for multiple lines of revenue in collaboration with publishing, editorial, marketing, sales, and other key stakeholders to ensure market readiness at product launch • Navigate and align the expectations of stakeholders to arrive at compelling and successful solutions that meet market needs and solve the pain points of the intended audience • Conduct competitive research on topic and category levels to ensure designs are relevant and meaningful to the end consumer, appropriate for target market, and convey each product’s unique value • Design creative assets for use in product marketing and outreach initiatives

Portfolio

Anger Management For Dummies

Smith, Laura L.

Cover Design
Analytics Stories: Using Data to Make Good Things Happen

Winston, Wayne L.

Cover Design Typography
Average Joe: Be the Silicon Valley Tech Genius

Livermore, Shawn

Cover Design Typography
Fostering Innovation: How to Build an Amazing IT Team

Laudato, Andrew

Cover Design
Agile 2: The Next Iteration of Agile

Cagle, Kurt

Cover Design
Made with Reedsy
The Information Management Engine: A Profit Prescription for the Business Ultimatum

Kimbrough, Gerrold

Cover Design
Made with Reedsy
The Art of Managed Services & Cloud Computing: A Practical Guide for Managed Services Professionals & Cloud Professionals

Weaver, Charles

Cover Design Book Interior Design
Made with Reedsy
Techonomics You Should Know: Life-Changing Economics of Disruptive Technologies

Wang, Taosha

Cover Design Typography Book Interior Design
Tribe of Hackers: Cybersecurity Advice from the Best Hackers in the World

Carey, Marcus J.

Cover Design
Teach Yourself VISUALLY Windows 11 (Teach Yourself VISUALLY (Tech))

McFedries, Paul

Cover Design
The NFT Handbook: How to Create, Sell and Buy Non-Fungible Tokens

Terry, QuHarrison

Cover Design
Women of Color in Tech: A Blueprint for Inspiring and Mentoring the Next Generation of Technology Innovators

Tedrick, Susanne

Cover Design
Puppies For Dummies

Sarah Hodgson

Cover Design
Pickleball For Dummies

Nard, Mo

Cover Design
Black Panther and Philosophy: What Can Wakanda Offer the World? (The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series)

Brown, Timothy E.

Cover Design Typography
The Art and Style of Product Photography

Thomas, J. Dennis

Cover Design
Nikon D5300 Digital Field Guide

Thomas, J. Dennis

Cover Design
Plate to Pixel: Digital Food Photography & Styling

Dujardin, Helene

Cover Design
Data Visualization with Excel Dashboards and Reports

Kusleika, Dick

Cover Design
Switching to a Mac Portable Genius

McFedries, Paul

Cover Design
Remote Work Technology: Keeping Your Small Business Thriving From Anywhere

Kurkowski, Henry

Cover Design
Becoming a Data Head: How to Think, Speak and Understand Data Science, Statistics and Machine Learning

Gutman, Alex J.

Cover Design
SQL for Data Scientists: A Beginner's Guide for Building Datasets for Analysis

Teate, Renee M. P.

Cover Design
The Accidental CIO: A Lean and Agile Playbook for IT Leaders

Millett, Scott

Cover Design

Mike has 15 reviews

Professionalism

Quality

Value

Responsiveness

Suzanne S.

Suzanne S.

Mar, 2025

Working with Mike Trent was an absolute pleasure. He designed a top-notch cover for my book that exceeded my expectations. Mike was professional, timely, and incredibly easy to collaborate with—he really listened to my vision and brought it to life with creativity and precision. He went above and...
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Mike T.
Thank you, Suzanne. It was my pleasure to work on your project - you're an easy client to work with and I appreciate your business and collaboration. Thanks for the kind words and I look forward to...
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Gerrold K.

Gerrold K.

Mar, 2025

Mike is an excellent artist and cover designer to work with. This is my second cover design with him, and I'm very pleased with both of them. Great work, Mike! Gerrold Kimbrough
Mike T.
Thanks Gerrold, always a pleasure to work with you - your direction is clear and well-thought out and all of your edits are reasonable and constructive.
Anthony F.

Anthony F.

Mar, 2025

Mike was magnificent. I highly recommend. He is collaborative and responsive.
Mike T.
Thanks Anthony! My pleasure - you are a great client to work with. Your launch materials were thorough and well put together allowing me to hone in on a successful design quickly. Every change you ...
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Michael M.

Michael M.

Aug, 2024

Mike is a gifted illustrator and cover designer. This is my second book for him and I trust that I will use his services with future publications.
Mike T.
Thank you, Michael. You are too kind. It was my honor to help with your books.
Phil F.

Phil F.

Apr, 2024

Mike was amazing to work with! A book cover is so important to the success of your book, whether on the shelves in book stores or online. Mike designed a fantastic sleeve for my hard cover book. Front, back and and inside flaps. Mike gave me many designs and options and told me current industry b...
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