Wow. It’s kind of a shame. The artwork itself–other than the oddball eyes and mouth on the kid–isn’t bad at all. That being said, I don’t think it’s really suitable for a book cover, but, hey. Diff’rent strokes, diff’rent folks.
What’s sad is that the tagline is utterly lost–that teeny white font lost in the spume–and that the font for the title is just frakking AWFUL. I mean, what? Was the designer blind? How did s/he not see that the font used for the title was so wrong for this???
Yeah, the artwork needs a bit of tweaking in Photoshop to make it pop (and the water and the temples(?) could’ve been better) but otherwise it’s quite nice. And the font would probably be better if it wasn’t stretched. I can’t imagine it was originally designed to look that way. It looks WRONG.
Yes. It definitely needs some contrast–I’d wondered, a bit, if they could have created some pop by using a coppery-bronze shade, for the title lettering. In something better than THAT godawful font. That came to mind given the color of the baby’s and mum’s hair; you might be able to make that work. I contemplated yellow–too sallow; green–just all wrong. Black, yak. I think red would suck, if it’s crimson. (A brick shade, for reasons already mentioned, MIGHT work).
Hard to know. I’ve gotten to the point that I keep a home interior paint color wheel nearby; when I can’t think of “what on earth color can go THERE?,” I pull it out and put various colors against the artwork. It’s old-school, true, but it’s fast and efficient at providing a range of color-schemes to try.
AND, yes, by golly: please, take pity on us, oh unknown cover designer, and FIX THE BLOODY FONT! Sheesh. Is it really too much to ask?
Since I suck at imagining, so I gave it a go:
It takes a second to remove that washed out grayness from the artwork and it instantly looks better. The orange title doesn’t really pop, but it fits. I guess if I wanted to waste more time to find the right shade of copper it might look better. Even the font doesn’t look as horrid when you return it to more normal proportions. The title is a bit small now, but since I had to squish that part of the cover to correct the font, that space could’ve been used to break the title in two lines and make it a tad bigger. The font for the tagline is anemic, but at least it’s visible now. It’s still a lousy cover, but not that lousy, I hope.
Heck, Catie, that’s already a bunch better. Definitely pops more. Good, you. Let’s hope that someday, (soon?) the cover designer or author sees this, and takes you efforts to heart. I agree that a more coppery tone would look a bit better, but, seriously: already 100% improved.
Naaman Brown
8 years ago
I expect a tagline to disappear at thumbnail but to have it disappear at full size is something else.
![cover[1]](https://lousybookcovers.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/cover1-11.jpg)
Wow. It’s kind of a shame. The artwork itself–other than the oddball eyes and mouth on the kid–isn’t bad at all. That being said, I don’t think it’s really suitable for a book cover, but, hey. Diff’rent strokes, diff’rent folks.
What’s sad is that the tagline is utterly lost–that teeny white font lost in the spume–and that the font for the title is just frakking AWFUL. I mean, what? Was the designer blind? How did s/he not see that the font used for the title was so wrong for this???
Damn. I just don’t understand it.
Yeah, the artwork needs a bit of tweaking in Photoshop to make it pop (and the water and the temples(?) could’ve been better) but otherwise it’s quite nice. And the font would probably be better if it wasn’t stretched. I can’t imagine it was originally designed to look that way. It looks WRONG.
Yes. It definitely needs some contrast–I’d wondered, a bit, if they could have created some pop by using a coppery-bronze shade, for the title lettering. In something better than THAT godawful font. That came to mind given the color of the baby’s and mum’s hair; you might be able to make that work. I contemplated yellow–too sallow; green–just all wrong. Black, yak. I think red would suck, if it’s crimson. (A brick shade, for reasons already mentioned, MIGHT work).
Hard to know. I’ve gotten to the point that I keep a home interior paint color wheel nearby; when I can’t think of “what on earth color can go THERE?,” I pull it out and put various colors against the artwork. It’s old-school, true, but it’s fast and efficient at providing a range of color-schemes to try.
AND, yes, by golly: please, take pity on us, oh unknown cover designer, and FIX THE BLOODY FONT! Sheesh. Is it really too much to ask?
Since I suck at imagining, so I gave it a go:
It takes a second to remove that washed out grayness from the artwork and it instantly looks better. The orange title doesn’t really pop, but it fits. I guess if I wanted to waste more time to find the right shade of copper it might look better. Even the font doesn’t look as horrid when you return it to more normal proportions. The title is a bit small now, but since I had to squish that part of the cover to correct the font, that space could’ve been used to break the title in two lines and make it a tad bigger. The font for the tagline is anemic, but at least it’s visible now. It’s still a lousy cover, but not that lousy, I hope.
Heck, Catie, that’s already a bunch better. Definitely pops more. Good, you. Let’s hope that someday, (soon?) the cover designer or author sees this, and takes you efforts to heart. I agree that a more coppery tone would look a bit better, but, seriously: already 100% improved.
I expect a tagline to disappear at thumbnail but to have it disappear at full size is something else.