I love the font and think it’s really cool even changing it from book to book for instance clockworks city book you could have a more industrial feeling to the “chronicles” while keeping the hero the same font throughout. Love it.
I love that it’s smiling now. I think the bruises and all that jazz might be a little exaggerated especially for the first book. But it defiantly is an eye catcher.
I like the smoke rolling effect I think you could make it a little more obvious possibly? And just throwing out ideas you could switch it up based on the book like again in the clockworks ones you could have it be a more digital glitch sort of fade into the cover instead. Just an idea to play around with.
smiley stands out from the background works as well as the first book… no thoughts.
Parchment good. It’s very you. You could tone it down a bit in my opinion but that’s all personal preference. You could also change the color / texture and characters again based on the book so that’s cool
Overall vibes good. I would tone down the beat up nature of the smiley. But that’s just me
Just FYI--this is not the smoke effect I was talking about, I ran out of time to post this, so I used a spatter pen instead...the smoke will be done on my iPad, not my desktop.
So the back wasn't precisely what I had in mind, this was to provide something visual...
Thus, noted, and YES, it will be a LOT more obvious!
Decided to go with characters on the back covers. Yes, i could do scenes, but I think showing characters would be more helpful -- especially , as Simon pointed out this morning on the way to work, characters will define the genre for most people...
As for the smiley, you might be right, but considering all Wendell went through, like the fall into the river, those wounds felt UNDERkill to me...let's see what others say who read the book.
Also, I'll consider the possibility of the Chronicles changing fonts. My hope was to keep that the same, because I would agree with you about Clockworks, but there aren't such defining locations as that through out the series, so I don't have fonts that would represent each book. That's a problem in my mind.
Glad you like the overall....and I'll be cleaning this up and making things permanent and get another pass.
My suggestion is specifically the eye. The eyes are what people look at first other things could be worse but if you focus on the eye that’s where all the focus goes.
Oh it’s a smiley face then it goes to the eyes and outwards from there.
Just saying if my parents (not knowing it was yours) saw me reading it I think they’d be very confused.
I'd have to agree with Joseph. As I mentioned in my comment, I wondered if you had upped the beaten look. The eyes are the focus to me, as well. If you did decide to pull back, maybe bloodshot eyes is enough. You can definitely tell the Smiley Face has been through some battles without a swollen eye. As a parent, though, it would not have stopped me from picking this book for my son. The Smiley Face alone is so positive, that message comes through.
I love it overall, and I have but a few bits of feedback.
The gem, I feel like it is definitely too subtle. One thing I felt when I first read the original book is that the cover didn’t have anything to do with it until you were quite deep into the story. Emphasizing the gem would change that, at least for me.
I agree with Joseph on the smiley, yes he may have had more wounds after his fall, but I think toning it down a bit would help my brain to process the image.
The only other thing I have feedback on, is the publishing info. I feel like it is quite a bit of text at the bottom of the book, and if you could tone it down a little it would look nice, however I don’t feel like this is a problem necessarily, it may just be me.
It looks great, and I’m excited to get my hands on it when it comes out!
I’m mostly in agreement with Joseph Vickery, but I am not sure why you chose a third font for “CHOICES” — I want it to be the same as the HERO font, but there may be a reason I’m unaware of (I come from the school of, “thou shalt not mix fonts” though, so bear that in mind.) If you’re using a dark smoke effect to break up the black background and make it less stark, I can see where that would add texture that could also lead a transition to the back page. Looking good! 😊
Okay, so there's the explanation I wanted for the Choices font. I get your thinking, but the Choices font is one font too many, IMO. I think it should be the same font as Hero. After all, the hero is the one making the choices, right? Anyway, the Choices font is too light for the bottom of the page. At the very least, it needs to be weighted more, due to its spot and importance on the page. :)
Great work, Jaime!!! I'm impressed with all the hard work and thought you're giving the cover. It will pay off! Here's your breakdown with my thoughts, which are few:
Font & Title Design: Is the gem over the ‘i’ too subtle? Does the font match the tone?
- I did not notice the gem, but it was small on my phone. I like that it's subtle and a nice discovery for the reader. I'd leave it, as is, so the reader has that discovery. Overall title design is great and it comes across, as you intend.
Smiley Face: Should we experiment with different emotions or stick with the current expression?
- I like the expression. Did you beat up the Smiley Face even more? I didn't notice him being so bruised last time.
Black & Smoke Transition: Does the smoke effect create the right level of visual interest?
- I like the transition effect but it doesn't read as smoke to me. Looks like mold and it does send the right time period tone.
Color Contrast: Is the yellow and black contrast too stark, or does it work well?
- I like the color contrast. Makes the cover easy to read as a thumb nail and draws my attention to it.
Texture & Background: Should the texture be more or less prominent?
- How you have it is cool. The ink splatter might interfere with your back cover blurb but you can always adjust that, as needed.
Publisher Info Placement: Is the placement of the QR code, ISBN, and promo elements clean and functional?
- That seemed logical.
Overall, it's a great cover. The one thing you didn't ask about was the Title font. "Choices" I'm old-school when it comes to fonts and I'm always conscious of using too many different fonts on the cover. I try to stick to two font styles. So for me, I'd make the Choices font the same as you used for the Hero font. But, you might have a reason to use the different font for Choices. If you stick with what you have, I'd at least go with a bolder font. Also, for me it feels scrunched at the bottom. Maybe that's because Choices overlaps the Smiley Face but Hero does not. The bolder font on Choices might fix that scrunched feeling. Or maybe Hero could overlap the Smiley Face a little, too, and that could help.
But that's all fine tuning stuff! However you go with it will be AMAZING!
, much more comfortable with the fonts, and the smiley looks a bit more comfortable too. I like the smoke, looking forward to seeing it with characters.
It's feeling good...and I realized because of the size of these books, and the vast content, it would be best to place some characters on the back covers.
Sorry, Jamie, I meant to try to answer this sooner, so I hope I’m not too late.
I see there are updates to the art on the cover… But I’ll post here what I answered about the first version, first. Likely won’t make a difference.
1. Love all the fonts! Notable detail: I was wondering if the gem couldn’t be blue like your logo?
2. I think your concept for the beaten and bruised :-) is PERFECT, but I had to think about it in thumbnail size and from across the room, when you can’t see it clearly… What would that look like? And I wondered if the specific swollen lip shape could not quite so closely matched the shape of the swollen eye… Because somehow it gave me the impression of the face being attacked by some sort of bug because the two looks so similar. Adore the idea and everything about it! That’s my only comment.
3. Although I have to admit, I made no connection to smoke, I also adored the look of the back cover, bleed into the black… Which to me in thumbnail size looked like the worn edges of a page… But I LOVED it! So what’s wrong with that? Wouldn’t change a thing. (I see some trailing smoke tails in an update? I loved the first way, but you’ll make everything look good so…)
4. Colour contrast is great to my mind! (And I already know from my incoming covers that artwork shows up different shades and vibrancy on each different screen and computer. So you’ll have a much better idea than I could!) I had imagined it might be too stark when you first mentioned it… But I don’t think so now with the touches of red, yellow and orange in the wounds. I think it works exactly as you wanted it too! Afterthought: maybe the Band-Aid could be a smidge bigger to be seen across the room. That really helps.
5. Love the texture! I think it brings everything together and makes it look super professional! (And hate that word by the way, but just saying! ;-))
6. Overall, the publisher info looks and works great! I think the Life of Fiction in the middle feels maybe a little too bit close to the QR code square? But I especially noticed the promo of the podcast and ADORE it. More lines or shading on the mic? Don’t care. Pretty perfect! 👍 🤩🏋️🤗👏👏👏❤️✨👋
Ok I like where this is going. Awesome.
Opinions
I love the font and think it’s really cool even changing it from book to book for instance clockworks city book you could have a more industrial feeling to the “chronicles” while keeping the hero the same font throughout. Love it.
I love that it’s smiling now. I think the bruises and all that jazz might be a little exaggerated especially for the first book. But it defiantly is an eye catcher.
I like the smoke rolling effect I think you could make it a little more obvious possibly? And just throwing out ideas you could switch it up based on the book like again in the clockworks ones you could have it be a more digital glitch sort of fade into the cover instead. Just an idea to play around with.
smiley stands out from the background works as well as the first book… no thoughts.
Parchment good. It’s very you. You could tone it down a bit in my opinion but that’s all personal preference. You could also change the color / texture and characters again based on the book so that’s cool
Overall vibes good. I would tone down the beat up nature of the smiley. But that’s just me
Overall I love where you’ve landed
Cool, thank you, Joseph....
Just FYI--this is not the smoke effect I was talking about, I ran out of time to post this, so I used a spatter pen instead...the smoke will be done on my iPad, not my desktop.
So the back wasn't precisely what I had in mind, this was to provide something visual...
Thus, noted, and YES, it will be a LOT more obvious!
Decided to go with characters on the back covers. Yes, i could do scenes, but I think showing characters would be more helpful -- especially , as Simon pointed out this morning on the way to work, characters will define the genre for most people...
As for the smiley, you might be right, but considering all Wendell went through, like the fall into the river, those wounds felt UNDERkill to me...let's see what others say who read the book.
Also, I'll consider the possibility of the Chronicles changing fonts. My hope was to keep that the same, because I would agree with you about Clockworks, but there aren't such defining locations as that through out the series, so I don't have fonts that would represent each book. That's a problem in my mind.
Glad you like the overall....and I'll be cleaning this up and making things permanent and get another pass.
As far as the bruising though I’m not saying it’s not valid based on what he goes through. I just think it’s a little off putting.
...but how do I even measure that?
My experience over the years is that a great deal of what I do is 'off putting'....just depends on who feels that way.
This is me, striving to be aware, but I require more information/definition to work with that comment.
Make sense?
So you, and Benjamin...what does it do when you look at it?
What do you think of?
....how do you feel?
Bot of you have read it, and like it, so if you can, suggest a state that would reflect the smiley in a more positive way.
Can you do that?
My suggestion is specifically the eye. The eyes are what people look at first other things could be worse but if you focus on the eye that’s where all the focus goes.
Oh it’s a smiley face then it goes to the eyes and outwards from there.
Just saying if my parents (not knowing it was yours) saw me reading it I think they’d be very confused.
I'd have to agree with Joseph. As I mentioned in my comment, I wondered if you had upped the beaten look. The eyes are the focus to me, as well. If you did decide to pull back, maybe bloodshot eyes is enough. You can definitely tell the Smiley Face has been through some battles without a swollen eye. As a parent, though, it would not have stopped me from picking this book for my son. The Smiley Face alone is so positive, that message comes through.
Okay, I'm going to play with the smiley then...
I love it overall, and I have but a few bits of feedback.
The gem, I feel like it is definitely too subtle. One thing I felt when I first read the original book is that the cover didn’t have anything to do with it until you were quite deep into the story. Emphasizing the gem would change that, at least for me.
I agree with Joseph on the smiley, yes he may have had more wounds after his fall, but I think toning it down a bit would help my brain to process the image.
The only other thing I have feedback on, is the publishing info. I feel like it is quite a bit of text at the bottom of the book, and if you could tone it down a little it would look nice, however I don’t feel like this is a problem necessarily, it may just be me.
It looks great, and I’m excited to get my hands on it when it comes out!
Maybe more of a black eye and a few bumps..
As for the info on the back, it'll look better once I get the actual smoke drawn out.
The gem can be pointed at... maybe with light... but I don't know I want the gem any bigger.
Thank you for things to consider. Will do some rough drafts.
I’m mostly in agreement with Joseph Vickery, but I am not sure why you chose a third font for “CHOICES” — I want it to be the same as the HERO font, but there may be a reason I’m unaware of (I come from the school of, “thou shalt not mix fonts” though, so bear that in mind.) If you’re using a dark smoke effect to break up the black background and make it less stark, I can see where that would add texture that could also lead a transition to the back page. Looking good! 😊
Good points, Shannon.
I changed the choices font because I wanted to reflect the feeling/content of the current book.
So Chronicles for the series, Hero for Wendell, and the title, Choices ,in this case, for the book itself.
Okay, so there's the explanation I wanted for the Choices font. I get your thinking, but the Choices font is one font too many, IMO. I think it should be the same font as Hero. After all, the hero is the one making the choices, right? Anyway, the Choices font is too light for the bottom of the page. At the very least, it needs to be weighted more, due to its spot and importance on the page. :)
Alright...I will try the font change as well...
Great work, Jaime!!! I'm impressed with all the hard work and thought you're giving the cover. It will pay off! Here's your breakdown with my thoughts, which are few:
Font & Title Design: Is the gem over the ‘i’ too subtle? Does the font match the tone?
- I did not notice the gem, but it was small on my phone. I like that it's subtle and a nice discovery for the reader. I'd leave it, as is, so the reader has that discovery. Overall title design is great and it comes across, as you intend.
Smiley Face: Should we experiment with different emotions or stick with the current expression?
- I like the expression. Did you beat up the Smiley Face even more? I didn't notice him being so bruised last time.
Black & Smoke Transition: Does the smoke effect create the right level of visual interest?
- I like the transition effect but it doesn't read as smoke to me. Looks like mold and it does send the right time period tone.
Color Contrast: Is the yellow and black contrast too stark, or does it work well?
- I like the color contrast. Makes the cover easy to read as a thumb nail and draws my attention to it.
Texture & Background: Should the texture be more or less prominent?
- How you have it is cool. The ink splatter might interfere with your back cover blurb but you can always adjust that, as needed.
Publisher Info Placement: Is the placement of the QR code, ISBN, and promo elements clean and functional?
- That seemed logical.
Overall, it's a great cover. The one thing you didn't ask about was the Title font. "Choices" I'm old-school when it comes to fonts and I'm always conscious of using too many different fonts on the cover. I try to stick to two font styles. So for me, I'd make the Choices font the same as you used for the Hero font. But, you might have a reason to use the different font for Choices. If you stick with what you have, I'd at least go with a bolder font. Also, for me it feels scrunched at the bottom. Maybe that's because Choices overlaps the Smiley Face but Hero does not. The bolder font on Choices might fix that scrunched feeling. Or maybe Hero could overlap the Smiley Face a little, too, and that could help.
But that's all fine tuning stuff! However you go with it will be AMAZING!
, much more comfortable with the fonts, and the smiley looks a bit more comfortable too. I like the smoke, looking forward to seeing it with characters.
It's feeling good...and I realized because of the size of these books, and the vast content, it would be best to place some characters on the back covers.
Not scenes.
Kindreds, baby!! 🥰 They clearly have the solid gold feedback for you here. This HERE is why I swear by co-creating with my kindreds.
I'm soooooo excited for YOU, that this is almost ready to come out. You know the vision... take your time, it's just building anticipation.
Sorry, Jamie, I meant to try to answer this sooner, so I hope I’m not too late.
I see there are updates to the art on the cover… But I’ll post here what I answered about the first version, first. Likely won’t make a difference.
1. Love all the fonts! Notable detail: I was wondering if the gem couldn’t be blue like your logo?
2. I think your concept for the beaten and bruised :-) is PERFECT, but I had to think about it in thumbnail size and from across the room, when you can’t see it clearly… What would that look like? And I wondered if the specific swollen lip shape could not quite so closely matched the shape of the swollen eye… Because somehow it gave me the impression of the face being attacked by some sort of bug because the two looks so similar. Adore the idea and everything about it! That’s my only comment.
3. Although I have to admit, I made no connection to smoke, I also adored the look of the back cover, bleed into the black… Which to me in thumbnail size looked like the worn edges of a page… But I LOVED it! So what’s wrong with that? Wouldn’t change a thing. (I see some trailing smoke tails in an update? I loved the first way, but you’ll make everything look good so…)
4. Colour contrast is great to my mind! (And I already know from my incoming covers that artwork shows up different shades and vibrancy on each different screen and computer. So you’ll have a much better idea than I could!) I had imagined it might be too stark when you first mentioned it… But I don’t think so now with the touches of red, yellow and orange in the wounds. I think it works exactly as you wanted it too! Afterthought: maybe the Band-Aid could be a smidge bigger to be seen across the room. That really helps.
5. Love the texture! I think it brings everything together and makes it look super professional! (And hate that word by the way, but just saying! ;-))
6. Overall, the publisher info looks and works great! I think the Life of Fiction in the middle feels maybe a little too bit close to the QR code square? But I especially noticed the promo of the podcast and ADORE it. More lines or shading on the mic? Don’t care. Pretty perfect! 👍 🤩🏋️🤗👏👏👏❤️✨👋
Appreciate the feedback!
Now, so everyone is on the same page here, there's no way to keep details the same at a distance, but that was never the point or the goal...
The cover only needs to be identified at a distance...
Will you know it's MY book across the room? Doesn't matter which one... if you know the smiley, that is enough!
So all good then...!!!