Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Cover Ideas V2



Okay, so Wm. Adams is right -- I'm giving up on Herculanum. Maybe Papyrus ... ? Seems cleaner and maybe not so esoteric, and I can use upper and lower case throughout.


Hey, I didn't say I wasn't going to listen to any advice -- I simply offered my reasoning for why I came up with the design I did ...

This one work better?

6 comments:

William Adams said...

Much better.

I still believe you need to re-space the word ``DEAD'' (by increasing space between D and E and E and A and reducing space between A and D) if you're determined to use that variant A --- unfortunately there aren't variant Ds or Es to go w/ it (for the record, AKMNRUVWXY & Z are available). Arguably you need to space out the balance of the title to match since it's all one line and so should have the same level of emphasis.

Not wild about using Bank Gothic, but it's definitely an improvement --- might want to try:

- set Steve Perry in light, leaving it caps-small caps--- very slightly increase the spacing the in small caps letters
- set the sub-title in Medium, changing it to all lower-case (which will make it all small caps) and letterspace things out very slightly.

Since the title is all caps, I believe setting at least the author's name in caps / lc will help --- if you have Frutiger (Herculanum's designer's Adrian Frutiger's eponymous design) you could try it for name and subtitle (the latter in spaced out caps). It's humanist and may harmonize, or perhaps it'll fail to distinguish itself (Bank Gothic does add a touch of modernity which conveys the urban aspect of the novel well).

Anonymous said...

Any font but Papyrus. Please. It has limited application, is way overused and is the mark of an amateur.

http://www.interpretationbydesign.com/?p=735

It's the Comic Sans of its day.

Ron

Daniel Keys Moran said...

Try something like

C H A M P I O N
OF THE DEAD

That particular look is a cliche in book covers, but that's because it works.

Champion is such a strong word, it should get placement.

Daniel Keys Moran said...

That didn't come through -- but you know what I mean, some sans serif face with "CHAMPION" lining up across the other 3 words.

Steve Perry said...

My favorite piece of classical music is Pachelbel's Canon in D -- a more spat-upon, sneered-at, spare-me-Lord composition doesn't exist -- but I *love* It. Doesn't do anything for anybody else, not my look out.

So -- and you probably see where this is going -- having found out that Papyrus is likewise loathed?

Oh, you just *know* which font I'm gonna use now, don't you?

Travis said...

I'm guessing papyrus is the bottom one?

I like it. Gives that pulp feel that makes me want to pick it up and look at the back cover.

Makes me think Remo Williams, the good version-not the bad version(s)- you know when Murphy and Sapir were listed authors not 'creators'.