Thriller cover feedback?

Gregg Bell

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Any feedback is appreciated! Thanks!

1)
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2)
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MaeZe

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IMO:

I like the black and white cover better. The color image looks a little like cheap cover art**.

There's something a tad off about the composition. You have the larger image, the woman, taking up less than half of the cover because of the way her dress and his jacket merge together. I suggest making it more clearly the woman in front, closer, larger image and move the man further back (in the composition) so it's more clear he's in the background.

** But with a little adjustment to the composition I might change my mind on that.
 
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gtbun

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The way the image is set up is creating a bit of a conflict. It seems that the chair is supposed to be providing some kind of break between "I love I kill" and the two "You"s, but with the change in colour it isn't really necessary. It somewhat splits the whole thing into two columns, and we read columns separately so it takes a moment to realise the title isn't "I love I kill". Making the images perspectively more comfortable will help this, but I would also be careful about the colour change in the sentence. The repetition of you is enough to make it distinct, you might consider improving it grammatically too: i.e. "I love you, I kill you".

The sans-serif type needs a lot more space, in tracking and leading. It's far too tight and it's accentuating the weird split of the cover, not helped by the fact that "I kill" - which is centred with "I love" - has very little relationship with is corresponding "you". The use of Bebas (or a relevant clone) is fine, it just needs a bit more room to breathe. Similarly, the use of Trajan(?), I'd take that down a weight. Trajan looks beautiful, but Trajan bold is a bit wank. If it were me, I'd set the author name normally (Gregg Bell, not GREGG BELL) to create a better dynamic between title and author. Goudy Oldstyle is a great alternative for Trajan, which has no lower case.

The bare bones are there, it just needs to be restructured and greater care given to type.
 

Umgowa

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Gregg, I have stumbled across a concept in book cover art that surprised me, but I think there is some merit to it . . . . Sometimes too much color, too much data shouting at you from a book cover forces a viewer to turn off his/her receptors a bit . . Often, the more busy, or colorful option is not as effective as a more subtle, nuanced approach. I find #1 to be more engaging and #2 to look too slick . . me too. . . not as intriguing. Just my two cents.
 
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