When I first saw The Believers cover in Borders, I thought I'd already seen it somewhere else. Turns out I had only seen the same effect—lots of lines/swirls in the background right next to the text—on the All the Sad Young Literary Men cover.
I prefer the All the Sad Young Literary Men cover design. I like the small drawings and the gray swirls feel more purposeful, almost like whorls of a fingerprint.
Showing posts with label critique. Show all posts
Showing posts with label critique. Show all posts
Similar Book Cover Design Elements
The Scales of Justice
I like the layers and texture in this cover design from Penguin Books. It's interesting to see how a design can have plenty of depth with a monochromatic color scheme.
Brand Redesigns: Pepsi & Tropicana
Some package redesigns are great—more attractive, more user-friendly, more interesting than the original design (Publix brand and Celestial Seasonings, for example). Some are not so great—less attractive, less user-friendly, more boring than the original design. The new Tropicana and Pepsi packaging, in my opinion, fall into the second category, worse than the original design.
Pepsi
PSFK has this neat image of Pepsi's logo progression over the years. The current logo looks like it should fit in the line up before the last 4 Pepsi logos — it's flat and boring, the curves are awkward and the logo text is so small it's hardly there. Since English is read left to right horizontally, if a designer chooses to use vertical type, that type has got to be even more well designed, interesting and easy to read than the same type if it was horizontal. I don't think this typography makes the cut.
Tropicana
Tropicana has had the same design for so long so I'm sure it was time for an update. The old design was a bit old fashioned but the new one is just... boring. I like the updated logo text but the rest of the text looks awkward. It looks like the designer couldn't decide which text to make prominent so decided to make it all big. On the previous carton, there was better distinction between the logo type, juice description, amount of pulp, and other items (pasteurized, carton size, etc). The new carton feels like a typographical jumble.
The Calling
I like the vintage tech look of this book cover. I especially like the simple and moody color scheme and detailed black and white patterns.
US Election Graphics
I'm heartily sick of the presidential election and ready for the media circus to end. (Actually, it never ends, it just switches topics but one can always hope...) I was most impressed with the Obama campaign design although McCain's campaign design suited McCain quite well. So for an election graphics roundup:
Obama's campaign fonts are Gotham and Perpetua (I almost thought it was Warnock Pro but the A's weren't right and a Google search revealed the correct serif font). Gotham is a good sanserif font choice for a message of change with its simple and modern look. Perpetua can actually be annoying as a text font because the x-height is rather small but it works well for titles and has a sharp modern look here. I like the O logo — it's simple and striking, although the Capitol building feels a little too round - it might have been better with the cupola added on top. Using a brighter blue with or instead of the standard dark blue was another graphical way to convey a message of change.
By far, my favorite design item was the multicolored Obama poster. Great choice of colors, image and retro styling. I've seen these posters all around town.
McCain's campaign font is Optima, a bold sanserif font with slight curves in the letterforms. The star was a good choice to emphasize McCain's military experience. It also brings the stars on the American flag to mind. This shade of yellow with this shade of blue doesn't work so well but it's bold and again ties to the military — all of those "Support Our Troops" ribbons are yellow. The McCain stickers are the same exact design as the yard signs so I didn't duplicate it here. I haven't seen any McCain campaign posters around town.
I'd give Obama's website design an A and McCain's website design a C.
The Indian Clerk
The Indian Clerk is a work of fiction set in the early 1900s British India and relationship between mathematicians G.H. Hardy and Srinivasa Ramanujan. My favorite thing about this cover is the small title centered in the circular pattern. I also like the muted sepia tones and subtle patterns.
When Post-Its Aren't Enough
I read organizing books for fun. (Yes, a bit nerdy but I really do enjoy it.) Julie Morgenstern is one of my favorite authors so I was excited when I got her latest book from the library: When Organizing Isn't Enough, SHED Your Stuff, Change Your Life. The cover design is pretty boring but what got me the most was the pitiful post-it notes. So here's how to create some better post-it notes:
- Create a new document in Photoshop.
- Draw a square with the rectangle Shape tool and fill it with light yellow.
- With the Convert Point tool (under the Pen), manipulate the 4 corners of the shape. Turn up the corners and add movement.
- Duplicate the yellow shape layer and move the copy below the original layer. Fill the copied layer with light gray. Choose Edit > Free Transform (Cmd-T) and expand the copy by 110%.
- With the Convert Point tool, manipulate the gray shape so the bottom corners show and top corners are hidden beneath the yellow post-it layer.
- Duplicate the gray shape layer and rasterize it. Apply Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur of 5 px. Turn off the original shape layer. (I always keep the original vector just in case.)
- Add a light yellow to medium yellow gradient above the yellow post-it layer and on the fly-out menu on the Layers panel, choose Create Clipping Mask.
And the book has been interesting, helpful and well-written so far. I just couldn't help commenting on the design.
1984 and Animal Farm
Gardens of Water
This book cover stands out for its beautiful simplicity. I like the elegant and slightly battered title and the white on white photography.
Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious
This is a fascinating book—it sort of reminds of Blink and The Tipping Point. I enjoy that sort of book: scientific but written so lay people can understand. But I'm here to talk about design. When searching for an image of the cover, I stumbled on the UK version so I thought I'd share that too.
I like and dislike things about both of the covers. Here goes:
US cover
I think the illustration is well done. It's easy to understand that the figure could choose to either follow logic and obey the sign or follow his gut instinct. I like the slightly quirky serif font for the subhead and the author's name. However, I think that overall the typography is a little too small and weak. The colors yellow and black are also very appropriate since that color combination is often used for danger signs.
UK cover
This cover breaks the mold of what I'd usually expect a book cover to be. The whole cryptic/word search style for the cover is fun and different. The simple sanserif font works well and there is enough contrast to pick out the words "Gut Feelings." I always eliminate unnecessary hyphens so the "UN-" in UNCONSCIOUS irritates me and looks like a mistake. The "&" is also begging to be moved up to the previous line.
One Perfect Day
I've been meaning to feature this cover. I read One Perfect Day last year and found it a well written and interesting glimpse into the $161 billion wedding industry. It's so perfect that the cover is a stapled receipt on top of traditional wedding typography.
Beneath a Marble Sky
The colors in this book cover caught my eye. I love how the red sari contrasts with the yellow and tan and how the black from her hair is repeated across the bottom. I like the handwritten script and the decorative bar at the bottom. It's well done and appropriate for a novel about the eldest daughter of the 17th-century emperor who built the Taj Mahal.
Sick
I have mixed feelings about this cover. The photography and concept are spot on—it's a creative and thought provoking image. But I can't stand the title font. Yes, I see what they were trying to do, mimic the $100 bill font but it just doesn't work for me. I would rather see a nice sanserif up there. Overall, a neat cover, good colors but needs help with the title typography.
Eat Pray Love
This is a clever book cover. I like how it ties so directly to the book's content. In the book, Elizabeth Gilbert mentions how the mood of a city or a place can often be summed up in one word. So both the title of the book and the treatment of those words tie directly to her activities in the 3 places she lived for 4 months each. Italy: eat, India: pray, Indonesia: love.
Twilight
I love the classic simplicity of this cover. I like how the designer chose to complement the strong photo with subtle and understated typography. I think the colors, the symbolism of the red apple and the slightly fancy curves of the word twilight all combine to create the appropriate mood and atmosphere for a young adult novel about vampires.
Ten Second Staircase
I like texture and layering and often incorporate it into my designs. But this cluttered cover goes beyond a reasonable amount of texture. Between the map, clock, key, cross, horse, silhouette, border elements, buildings, numbers and more the eye is confused and overwhelmed. I'm also not a fan of the overly large initial caps. I do like the color scheme and maybe this cover would work with 1/2 of the design elements and new typography.
Simply Organic
This topic has a lot of potential design solutions but this book cover seems to be a weak effort. The childish multi-color headline, pale background and uninteresting photo make this an overall dull design. The typography is okay but the awkward hanging comma after the word "sustainable" that just keeps popping out at me.
How to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint
A fun book cover from Chronicle Books. I love the bright colors, simple typography and strong imagery. The toes are adorable. This cover makes me want to break out into nursery rhymes: "this little piggy went to market, this little piggy stayed home..."
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