Our new book is nearly complete, and we’re liking it. Cathy Lane, editor of LogoLounge, is editing, and Kim Scott of Bumpy Design is assembling it for Peachpit Press. These two did our first two books, so you’ll see a family resemblance. For those who’ve asked whether it’s new material or old, it’s old (published is a better word). Our books are articles from the magazine, collected by topic and reformatted. Subscribers will recognize the material, but the new format and sequence change the perception noticeably.

Thank you very much for your help with the cover. You may remember that we had no time for big revisions, so we incorporated the half-dozen suggestions we heard the most (but which would leave the format intact), and ended up with a stronger design.

Here’s the “before”:

Your analysis:

1) The bold version is better than the light version.

2) You could pilot a steamship down that river of white! The images are too small, too detached, and there are too many of them.

3) Make the logo bigger.

4) Lose the colored fills in the letters.

5) Lose the exclamation point.

6) Write shorter copy.

Here’s the “after,” which we sent to Amazon:

Every change improved it.

Still, it’s not final. The cover was designed before the contents were chosen, so some of these images will be replaced.

Won’t it then be different? No. Despite their differences, the “after” above isn’t a true variation of the “before”— the covers are, practically speaking, one design, tweaked. How to tell? Use the two-second-glance rule: Glance for two seconds (only two, which is really brief), look away, then ask, “same or different?” Our design guru Gwen Amos says that she’ll assign students to design “three variations,” and, often as not, they’ll turn in one design plus tweaks.

This is a variation . . .

Even here, although it’s different, it’s conceptually similar—tall, uppercase type (Franklin Gothic Condensed) that serves as a focal point (reversed, in this case) and plenty of colorful graphics from the magazine. The Peachpit decision-makers gave this version a quick thumbs-down, not because it’s a poor design but because they loved the other one!

If a client asks you not for variations but for different concepts, then you need to give him something like this . . .

. . . which makes an entirely different impression.

Tweaks. Variations. Concepts.

When your project is in the “how-do-we-present-this?” phase, concepts are better than variations, and variations are better than tweaks.

Remember the differences.

This June 15.

That’s Monday, people.

So as I write, and in a sea of other projects, we’re running the how-fast-can-you-design-a-cover? drill for a book whose contents aren’t even finalized. No time to explore concepts; just get it on the page and see what happens.

So we could really use your eyes.

The cover is 7″ x 9″, same as our others. What I’d like is a reaction — a Yes, I like it, or, I’d pick that up, or, No, I don’t like it. Keep in mind that a book is viewed in two places — in the bookstore at close distance, where you can hold it and explore its contents easily, and online in low res at small sizes where its contents are more difficult to explore.

The job of the cover is to set the tone and pull you in.

Once you’ve let yourself react to it, feel free to say what you like or not about it.

(Click image for a full-size view)

Same thing but bold . . .

At Amazon size . . .

And how books actually look on Amazon . . .

We love reading your stuff! In this case, please keep your comments brief because, well . . . Monday.

—————

June 12, 5 p.m. Pacific Time. Comments closed.

A reader once wrote to me simply to say, “You’re a rich man, John McWade.” By which he was referring to the trust that so many of you have placed in me, and the fact that I can ask a simple question about my own work and so many are willing to help. Thank you ALL for taking the time to comment; your insights have enlightened me in several important ways. And stay tuned for a followup. With all the cross-currents in these waters, there will be a lot to discuss.

Your assignment was to design the cover of a book that you’d keep near your bed to read and fall asleep. You sent us 156 covers and counting! Whew! You can click on a cover to see a bigger version. Covers with a red dot (•) have our comments. Additional comments will be added as we go.

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Okay, you swamped us with book covers and gave us a lot to think about and talk about and smile about! Turns out this was an instructive assignment.

Let’s review.

The assignment was to “Design the cover of a book that you’d keep near your bed to read and fall asleep. It must not arouse the reader in any way. No thought-provoking titles, no glorious colors, no gripping images, no edgy layouts.”

The cover was required to have:

1) A title. Subtitle optional.
2) Photo or illustration
3) “Author’s” name

[rssless]A number of you noted with surprise the difficulty of designing something bland. I hope working on the assignment illustrated for you that “bland” is not different from, say, “tension” or “power.” It’s a matter of putting this line in that place the right distance from over there. Small things matter.

The titles you chose had a big effect on your designs (and the somnolence of the results), which brings up an interesting point: A designer normally works with other people’s words, to translate/interpret/express them in imagery. This, as you know, can be frustrating. In this case, however, the words and the images were all yours. How well did you integrate the two when you were in total control?

Many covers had us laughing out loud. This, of course, disqualified them immediately (much too arousing!), but it doesn’t mean we didn’t enjoy them.

We’ve sorted your submissions into four broad categories:

1) Covers that keep us awake (fail)
2) Covers that wake us up! (fail with caffeine!)
3) Covers that are beautiful but keep us awake (fail)
4) Covers that put us to sleep (pass).

And one or two submissions rose to a fifth category: covers that are attractive and also put us to sleep (pass with excellence). Just so you know, the first category five came from a 78-year-old reader. There’s always someone to mess up the curve.

We’re busy making crits of every cover and will be cherry-picking the best examples in each category for a new Before & After PDF article.

In the meantime, here are a few of the 150+ covers you sent in:

Category 3
A cover that’s beautiful but keeps us awake (fail)

Cover by Misha Van Tol

Midnight. Pillow. Bedside. Slumberous words. Soft, comfy linen in calm, neutral colors. What could be more sleep inducing? Even the author’s name is, well, gray. But there are some culprits here that mess up the somnolent mood. One is the word “tales,” which suggests intrigue, mystery, suspense, especially since it involves a bed—at midnight. Another is the pillow’s rakish angle, which is extremely active and suggestive, too, in a Hitchcock kind of way. And Mr. Graye? His bland countenance is betrayed by that rogue, ending e, which suggests, if not an exotic lineage, at least a British one, á la Sherlock Holmes.

Watch those lines
The pillow’s not moving, but your eye sure is! All lines create motion. Angled lines create fast motion, which is great for skateboarding but not for sleeping.

It does, however, bring up a useful technique . . .

Angles are active
. . . To generate tension, followed by excitement, all you have to do is make an angle. It’s unsteady — will it tip? — and all those triangles create converging lines, which move the eye rapidly from wide to narrow. Need more excitement? Add more angles!

Neutral colors
Neutral palette is all soft edges and quiet colors, beautiful without being arousing. An A for this part.

Click the covers for comments:

[Posted at 9:05 am on October 31, 2008 by John]

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Can you put your audience to sleep?

We’d like you to try.

Design the cover of a book that you’d keep near your bed to read and fall asleep. Bland. Benign. Unengaging. Your assignment is to not arouse the reader in any way. No thought-provoking titles, no glorious colors, no gripping images, no edgy layouts. The opposite, in fact.

Can you do it?

Your cover will require:
1) A title. Subtitle is optional.
2) Photo or illustration
3) “Author’s” name

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Size is not important. We’re using 5″ x 7″, so you may as well stick with that.

You’ll have to deal with five elements: type, color, image, layout—plus what the words actually say. Your cover must include every element.

There’s a tongue-in-cheek quality to this, so have fun with it (which does not mean make it funny, because that would be arousing). Here’s an example to get you started:

Send us your cover. We’d LOVE to see what you come up with.

[Posted at 5:00 pm on October 3, 2008 by John]

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