That Reminds Me....
Many, many moons ago, I posted on a cover that wound up being abandoned in favor of another designer’s work. I promised an update, but, as often happens, life moved on and I forgot.
However, I was at the Online Photographer, reading a satire post — with serious implications, of course — this morning, and it featured an image that triggered that memory.
So, finally, what I presented (again):
And, what the author went with:
One word: Ew.
I’d leave a comment on the Online Photographer, but it suffers the same fate as Joseph’s NYT Covers blog and everything else from Blogger: it doesn’t allow me, using Firefox on a Mac, to enter the necessary letters to approve comments — just keeps asking for ’em over and over. Unfortunately, the Online Photographer doesn’t have a contact form for me to let him know.
Blogger: Enough already. Please Fix That!!
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Posted by Giles, Sunday, June 25, 2006, at 1:28 PM.
Posted to Book cover photography | Book design | Photography | Type and typography | Whatever
Comments:
Gah! That’s terrible. That font alone is horrifying.
Uuugh! That cover makes me want to puke!
Not knowing anything about the content, I’m guessing the author really wanted to convey a sense of history, which the picked one does convey, but in such an awful, awful way.
Bummer.
frightening indeed: they pulled out every photoshop filter in the book for this one.
(and i use the drop shadow filter sometimes, just not in conjunction w/ the stroke, bevel and emboss filters).
I’m an inhouse cover designer at a self publisher and this bizarre turnaround happens all the time. It’s painful, like a kick in the stomach. Your body goes into all kinds of spasms trying to deny that such poor taste exists. There’s disagreeable taste, and then there’s no taste. Ew is right.
I don’t think you need me to tell you, but your cover blows that one away. Who on earth would see both these covers and choose the later? They should not be allowed to breed.
I think you’ll be interested to see that your original image of choice has made it onto the cover of the paperback edition of an award-winning novel by one of Australia’s best-regarded writers:
http://www.textpublishing.com.au/win-item.asp?id=385
cheers (and apologies for that long-winded comment!)
Judith in Sydney
Wow — that’s very good to know. Thanks for sharing that info with us, Judith!
OMG, you see what happens when people are arrogant enough to think they can write, edit and manage creative design? Wow. That second cover, with the photos on it, exemplifies everything that is wrong with the POD industry. It looks like PhotoShop barfed.