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Book Cover
Posted by miriam_r in
13 Feb 2003 — 4:22pm
13 Feb 2003 — 4:22pm
This is a cover I haven been working on for a long time. It is an Australian man's life in India and Afganistan in the early 1980s. It's a very long and interesting book that hopefuly will prove popular. I am happy with the image but not the typography. We're trying to achieve the dream: mass-market not down-market and easily recognisable. I thought with these requirements everyone's experience with logos might help. Thank you!
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13 Feb 2003 — 11:37pm
I would set the type negative instead...
14 Feb 2003 — 2:55am
If it's just a matter of degrees, you might consider Matthew Carter's Mantinia in place of the Galliard caps. It's similar, but a little more exotic looking. Mantinia was designed as a titling companion to Galliard.
14 Feb 2003 — 4:20am
Good call, Kent. Mantinia was my first thought too (although this might suggest that it's a little obvious). Another good option would be the titling weight of HTF Requiem, which could also be used for the author's name. The text weight could be used for the tag line at the top, although it's really a bit naff: The Man. The Life. The Novel. The Ego. The Cheese.
14 Feb 2003 — 4:52am
Its a typographical proportion problem, not a typeface problem. The position of the title is too low and the SHANTARAM text zone is equal to the author zone.
not enough space on each side of the title, and too much space inside the title.
Perhaps, the word structure is not at its best in all caps setting (very angular and difficult to space). Switch author name in caps -- title in lowercases.
14 Feb 2003 — 5:55am
I really dig the halftone mandala-esque design in the middle.
You might want to reduce the size of the author's name. I agree with Jean -- it's fighting with the title.
14 Feb 2003 — 7:01am
maybe putting a ligature in SHANTARAM is a good idea.
14 Feb 2003 — 12:56pm
I agree with Jean about reversing the caps and lc treatments. I also agree with an earlier comment about choosing a bit more flourished face for the title or employing ligatures in an lc setting.
I don't know if this is up for discussion, but I think the tagline doesn't belong on the cover. I'm not one for taglines on book covers to begin with, but in particular I think this one is a bit cliched and detracts from the opportunity to let the image (which is lovely, by the way) and the title shine.
14 Feb 2003 — 1:38pm
15 Feb 2003 — 5:12pm
ligatureeee....
15 Feb 2003 — 7:21pm
One suggestion I would make is the bring in the tracking of the authors name, its really quite taboo to widely track lc characters.
15 Feb 2003 — 7:46pm
Thanks for your responses. I'll look into them and post some of my changes. Although I don't write the tag line or have to like it (or the title for that matter). The only major control I have had so far is in creating the central image. Thanks again though for the constructive criticism. Working on your own it is hard to get outside your own head sometimes!
3 Sep 2003 — 6:27pm
Here is the cover that got printed. 940pp hardback!
3 Sep 2003 — 9:47pm
Woah, HUGE change from the first post.
What happened?
7 Sep 2003 — 10:04pm
Well....The first one I posted was one of about 20 roughs. The cover that got printed was the one that most people (ie author, marketing, publisher etc) were happy with. I still may snaffle that mandala-type thing I did for something else though.
8 Sep 2003 — 12:21am
Miriam - from what there is to see, this cover
blows away the other one. Nice work.
Can you post a larger image...
bj
8 Sep 2003 — 5:41pm
Yeah, the new cover is quite nice.
I too would like to see a bigger version.
8 Sep 2003 — 10:10pm
Here you go:
The book has just been published in Australia and has been quite a success. If anyone's interested in reading anymore about it go to: www.scribepub.com.au
8 Sep 2003 — 10:12pm
Here you go:
The book has just been published in Australia and has been quite a success. If anyone's interested in reading anymore about it go to: www.scribepub.com.au
8 Sep 2003 — 10:35pm
so are you happy with that cover?
8 Sep 2003 — 10:49pm
Yep
8 Sep 2003 — 11:32pm
==
9 Sep 2003 — 3:12pm
The only thing that sucks...if they release this book in the states it'll probably have a completely different cover and inside layout
Which isn't always bad, considering I much prefer the American Harry Potter illustrations and layout to the British versions, though I wish they didn't edit the language.
But sometimes, for covers like this, it sucks when they change it.
23 May 2004 — 9:38pm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3711331.stm
hhp