Minimalistic book cover

Started by jannar85, Thu 05/06/2014 22:40:28

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jannar85

Hey guys, sorry about being so quiet :) Just have so many projects going on!
I've decided to release my old short story from 2004, after I picked it up last month and did some rewriting to it.
But now I'm going to publish it as an e-book, so I had to make a cover for it.

The short story is in Norwegian only, but I might translate it one day soon to English.

Anyway, any feedback on the cover would be most helpful!

Thanks.

Veteran, writer... with loads of unreleased games. Work in progress.

xil

#1
I'd probably make it slightly less minimalistic (gradient and not just a blue circle) and smooth the fonts up.

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Calico Reverie - Independent Game Development, Pixel Art & Other Stuff
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jannar85

Thanks! I did some new suggestions regarding the feedback you gave, but I decided the blue circle wasn't much needed so I ended up with a new suggestion :)

Bigger title, blue faded circle, and a different font for me.

Veteran, writer... with loads of unreleased games. Work in progress.

xil

Maybe move the logo/cicle up a bit as there seems more space at the top than the bottom.

Also you need to anti-alias those fonts in my opinion.

Looks good though!
Calico Reverie - Independent Game Development, Pixel Art & Other Stuff
Games: Mi - Starlit Grave - IAMJASON - Aractaur - blind to siberia - Wrong Channel - Memoriae - Point Of No Return

EliasFrost

I agree with xil, the margin for each elements need to be balanced. In xil's example, each element is 'boxed' which gives the whole composition a good feel and easy on the eye.

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jannar85

Thanks. Is this better?



I aligned it better, still no antialiasing though :)
xil, what kind of font did you use at the bottom in your example?
Veteran, writer... with loads of unreleased games. Work in progress.

xil

The font I used at the bottom is Open Sans - Condensed Light http://www.1001freefonts.com/open_sans_condensed.font

The alignment is much better in my opinion - you don't have to anti-alias the fonts if you are going for a particular look, it was only a suggestion :)
Calico Reverie - Independent Game Development, Pixel Art & Other Stuff
Games: Mi - Starlit Grave - IAMJASON - Aractaur - blind to siberia - Wrong Channel - Memoriae - Point Of No Return

Ghost

It would be interesting to know what the story's about- right now a look at the cover creates (for me) a dark mood, with an ominous and slightly agressive "Dumbo! Dumbo!" shouted into my face... and the only Dumbo I know is that cute little elephant from the Disney movie, so there's a bit of a conflict.

I know you should never judge a book by its cover but the first thing I thought was "Now this is going to be a dark story, maybe about some kids teasing and antagonizing another kid (probably because of his big ears)." It was the first thing that popped into my mind.

__
edit: My ears are normal-sized, and I was never teased for them.

jannar85

Ghost, that's what I was going for and you are absolutely right.

It's about a man thinking back as we was getting teased of his big ears - the bullies named him "Dumbo."
But as the story progresses in the present time, the reader learns that he's finally meeting some girl that's been writing to him for a period. But the girl never shows up.

It's a story about loneliness, death, revenge, fear, hope and choice... and regrets.


Thanks again for all help!
Veteran, writer... with loads of unreleased games. Work in progress.

Ghost

Quote from: jannar85 on Fri 06/06/2014 02:06:28
It's about a man thinking back as we was getting teased of his big ears - the bullies named him "Dumbo."

So... ONE COVER teleported the gist of the story into my brains? I'd call that a very powerful image, then- well done (nod)

Misj'

Personally I prefer your first cover. Sure, it's minimalistic. But it's also clean and feels right. I fear each iteration feels less professional and  actually looses character.

I made a few variations loosely based on the original cover as well as your description to Ghost.

top-left: Simple cover with the title. I added an exclamation mark both as a playfull backdrop and to to accentuate them in the title
top-right: I playfully added two ears to the exclamation mark since the ears play an important role in the story (I didn't want to make it a full smiley-face because I think you want to walk a fine line between playful and serious for this story..and a smiley-face could easily become amateurish and out of place).
bottom-left: same cover but with a slight gradient on the background.
bottom-right: made the title upper-case to accentuate the shouting. Also made the contrast a bit bigger to make the text a bit more angry.



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