Cover Design

News, trends, and the future of publishing
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knight_tour
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Re: Cover Design

Post by knight_tour » April 16th, 2011, 5:57 am

Guardian wrote:
knight_tour wrote:I have a vivid picture in my head of the cover art that I want, but I am not good enough to do it myself. I would gladly pay a reasonable amount if I could find an artist talented enough to do what I am after. It needs to be someone who can pull of realism, though. When I scour the net looking for artists, most don't do realism well. Often they do parts of it well, but there are bits that are off.
What sort of realism do you need?
I don't need exact photorealism, but I love the elegant realism that I see in the best Alan Lee works, especially the coloring without all the horrible bright colors we usually see in fantasy covers. My favorite example would be his Land's End piece - http://tedacross.blogspot.com/2010/07/o ... -your.html

His water, rocks, bridge, and so on are incredibly well done, and the details on the cloaks blow me away.

52design
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Re: Cover Design

Post by 52design » April 20th, 2011, 11:46 am

Hi Knight tour,
I have been reading this post, and understand you are looking for an illustrator /artist.
I am a graphic designer/ illustrator. I would love to help you with this project.
Most of my work has been for a Christian publication and the art I created for them has been a naitivity scene.
How ever I would like to expand my skills and work on this kind of project I saw the picture Alan Lee's work on you blog.
Let me know if you would be interested?

ClaudeNougat
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Re: Cover Design

Post by ClaudeNougat » May 3rd, 2011, 11:35 am

This is a great topic but I think you need to distinguish between a GREAT cover design for PRINTED books and one for E-BOOKS.

The visual requirements are NOT the same: for stuff on paper, the sky's the limit. You can let your imagination go in terms of colors (flying, of course), subject (cropped bodies, milling crowds, endless rooftops) and even texture (bumpy, raised, whatever seems right, a plate of overcooked noodles being the exception).

For an e-book, you have to remember the cover design is going to be reduced to POSTAGE STAMP size on your Kindle or whatever e-reader your readers might be using (the iPad being presumably - logically - the only exception, but then stats are out: most people don't use their iPad to read and have kept their Kindle for the purpose, even after purchasing the iPad...Steve Jobs, please take note!).

Okay, I can see what you're thinking, here I go fiddling with details. You have this great cover, you love it, you worked on it yourself for hours or with your trusted commissioned artist, and it's cost you already a lot of sweat and dough. And besides, where's the problem? You just reduce it with whatever technical program you can lay your hands on, it's click and go, right? Sure you can, but it's going to look awful. Crowded. Illegible. A meaningless blotch.

So what's the answer? Start thinking small. What does it require for a postage stamp image to draw attention? Good color, yes, something sharp that catches the eye. Primary colors are best - red, blue, yellow (no funny colors, in-between shades, they won't work in small size). But more than the color - remember a cover shows up in BLACK AND WHITE on the Kindle (and other e-readers) - what is important is the SHAPE and COMPOSITION (by that I mean the relationship between the letters of your title and name and what's around it). It's got to be simple, clean, striking. No jumbles, please! Your title has to stand out, either black letters on a clear background, or the reverse, white letters on dark. Yeah, otherwise it's not legible.

But that doesn't mean you should stick to simple geometric shapes. No, you can do whatever you like: you can go poetic, atmospheric, ghoulish, volcanic, whatever happens to have a "feel" that reflects the meaning of your book. Is it a thriller, with murder galore? Have dripping blood and a sharp knife! Is it a sweet sixteen YA romance? Have kissing lips or holding hands...Whatever, it's up to you but you get the idea! Good luck!

Margo
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Re: Cover Design

Post by Margo » May 3rd, 2011, 1:28 pm

ClaudeNougat wrote:This is a great topic but I think you need to distinguish between a GREAT cover design for PRINTED books and one for E-BOOKS.

The visual requirements are NOT the same: for stuff on paper, the sky's the limit. You can let your imagination go in terms of colors (flying, of course), subject (cropped bodies, milling crowds, endless rooftops) and even texture (bumpy, raised, whatever seems right, a plate of overcooked noodles being the exception).

For an e-book, you have to remember the cover design is going to be reduced to POSTAGE STAMP size on your Kindle or whatever e-reader your readers might be using...
Technically, this is true for both covers when sold through online distributors like Amazon and B&N. The print book, sold online, will also feature a tiny cover in the search results. The advice would be good to keep in mind for both kinds of covers.

FYI, bcomet, I'm working with a great cover designer right now. Will be digital only, so that cut down on costs. All in, including image licenses, it came to less than $120. This particular designer has done some nice covers for urban fantasy, fantasy, thrillers, romance, and YA. Let me know if you want contact details.
Urban fantasy, epic fantasy, and hot Norse elves. http://margolerwill.blogspot.com/

Guardian
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Re: Cover Design

Post by Guardian » May 3rd, 2011, 3:37 pm

This is a great topic but I think you need to distinguish between a GREAT cover design for PRINTED books and one for E-BOOKS.
There are only three differences between the Ebook covers and the standard covers; the resolution, the DPI and the color plates. Ebooks may use RGB colors, usually with lower DPIs (Usually 72 DPI) and resolutions, while standard covers are using large resolutions, CMYK colors and 150-600DPIs. Standard covers can't really use RGB colors as the printing machines are using CMYK system. The basic rule is; if you create a CMYK cover you can convert it to RGB without any glitch as the colors won't change in most cases, if not in all cases. But if you convert the RGB to CMYK, the colors are going to be different as the vivid colors are going to turn to pale (You may adjust the colors, but RGB and CMYK is rarely going to be the same if the RGB version is using bright, vivid colors.).

rhrussellwriter
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Re: Cover Design

Post by rhrussellwriter » May 12th, 2011, 9:39 pm

Thanks for bringing up those issues, Claudenougat. What a reader sees when browsing on Amazon has to catch her eye.

FEM4Ever
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Re: Cover Design

Post by FEM4Ever » June 6th, 2011, 1:24 pm

JT Lindroos designed my cover. He was very nice to work with--very cooperative and lots of back and forth went into our email communication.
Check out his website http://jtlindroos.carbonmade.com/

Here is My Cover



Image

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KevinM
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Re: Cover Design

Post by KevinM » April 22nd, 2012, 10:34 pm

I am also looking for an excellent and reliable book cover artist/graphic designer. My first book went to a traditional publisher, however my next three (pocket books) will publish through my own press. Here is the criteria for the current cover I am looking for:


Book title:
Masterpiece Marriage Starts with YOU!
A Pocketbook Guide to Fine tuning your Relationship

• Cover should show what a Masterpiece relationship looks like
• Cover should show the action of fine tuning the relationship
• Cover should show that the book or use thereof results in a masterpiece relationship
• Cover must be hip, modern, eye catching, simple, fun, easy colorful and tells the reader it is
intended for same sex and heterosexual couples (very important)

My editor only needs the hi-res PSD OR AI file. Let me know if anyone has any leads or someone they can refer me to. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. Money is not an issue for the right person.

Thanks,

Kevin Mendez
Founder
Emotional Perfection LLC
http://www.emotionalperfection.com
415-322-0875

bcomet
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Re: Cover Design

Post by bcomet » August 13th, 2012, 1:56 pm

Hi. I've been gone for awhile. So glad that I started this thread as there is much valuable information here now as well as many good resources. Thanks to all of you who continue to contribute to this thread!

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