Posted for Comment
Dan writes:
I’ve attached a couple of covers I’m working on for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, if you’d like to post one or both for comment. The photos are pretty much set at this point, but I’m still refining the typography. Would love to know what people think. Thanks!
I’ll take both, thank you:
and:
I like the photo choices, and generally agree that it’s down to typography. More in the comments — please join in.
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Posted by Giles, Wednesday, March 22, 2006, at 1:53 PM.
Posted to Book cover photography | Book design | Type and typography
Comments:
Not kidding about the photos, Dan — they work well for me, especially the cop. (I love the crop — and the message.)
I’d beg for more agressive, edgy typography, and perhaps warmer colors on Waters and cooler on Imperative.
There’s that wonderful blue on the cop’s badge that could use repetition somewhere, too. Might be too bright for the title background, but.…
On Waters, what about using a dark aqua instead of the black? Plus, the gray comes out of nowhere. Is there a suitable color in the photo that you could use that would allow you to lose the stroke?
Sorry I don’t have more time to toss ideas around. Thanks so much for sending!
I’d strongly consider framing the top photo a bit so that the water doesn’t flow to the very edge of the cover. Probably black would work best.. and I’d echo Giles’ comment about the text colors and add that “Troubled” might work better in all caps to reduce the number of changes in font and style (currently 1 per line)
The bottom one is pretty nice. Again i’d consider edging the title block with a bit of the black border instead of letting it bleed to the extreme edge.
I agree with Dystopos, framing the upper picture may prove a good idea. Also, the text colour could indeed be brought a bit closer to the colours of the photo. On the other hand, I have no problem with “Troubled” not being caps: I think this way the typo emphasizes the meaning of the word better than it would in all caps. However, as Dystopos said, font variation should perhaps be reduced somehow.
One more thing: I think I’d increase the distance, the gap between “Troubled” and the biggest ship. Smaller fonts? Or a slightly different crop of the photo?
As for the bottom design, I like it as it is. It may be worth - but just for the fun of it - trying and placing the author’s name box right above the title field, the two joined together, no empty space between them, and bringing both somewhat lower so they cover and “replace” the belt of the policeman, emphasizing the symbolism of restraint even further. (This way all the text would be surrounded by police… :))
Thanks, guys for the feedback. The notes on color especially are helpful. I’ll try a border on the top book, but I’m not too sure how I feel about that off the bat. I’m thinking instead about fading the photo into the background seamlessly. Also, I’ve been handed a new, much shorter title for the second book, so I’m reworking the type on that one quite a bit. I’ll post an update when these are done.
Not sure if it’s my monitor, but I’d definitely work on color correction on the ‘water’ picture-it looks like an old slide. And combined with the font choice, the whole thing looks too much like an old book to me—sorry. I’d avoid stroking the font, put some color in the type and also would look into another (non-slab) font altogether.