Seeking Feedback on Reworked Cover Design

Wesley_S_Lewis

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I'm trying some new fonts on my cover, and I'm curious which ones you all like best:

This was the previous version:

cover-a.jpg


And this is the latest version:

cover-b.jpg


Thanks in advance for any feedback.
 

Chris P

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I like the first one as well. I think you have too much going on with the fonts in the second one. Honestly, after seeing several versions of this cover, I think you're well into the territory where further tweaking is going to provide minimal returns on your investment of time.

Was there a reason you wanted to make changes? Did you get particular input on the previous one?
 

Wesley_S_Lewis

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I like the first one as well. I think you have too much going on with the fonts in the second one. Honestly, after seeing several versions of this cover, I think you're well into the territory where further tweaking is going to provide minimal returns on your investment of time.

Was there a reason you wanted to make changes? Did you get particular input on the previous one?

Several people said they thought the fonts weren't quite right.
 

Wesley_S_Lewis

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I agree with Veinglory that the letter spacing looked weird on the previous submission.

I think I've settled on all of the fonts except "WEST OF." I've added one more to the mix:

cover-comparison-5.jpg


Thoughts?

As always, any feedback is appreciated.
 
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Underdawg47

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I like all three of these covers and each for different reasons. Having not read your book,the first impression I get is a sense of danger because it appears that this woman is perched on the ledge of a tall building and could plunge to her death if she weren't holding on to this man. Or maybe this man is about to toss a drunk or sleepy woman off the roof. The door opening to darkness looks scary. The neon sign Sin makes me think that this takes place in a seedier part of a major city. This could be a hotel room. I don't know if you planned this, but the word placement looks like a wineglass and the ferris wheel looks like a slice of lime or perhaps the outline of an olive or cherry and she is looking right at the sin alcohol right in the glass.

In the first picture the font of the "W" is the Volkswagon symbol, but it also forms an "X" which makes me see the word sex written backwards in the word west. I think of prostitution.

In the second picture, the font looks worn through time and wear.

In the third picture, the tall narrow font makes the wineglass shape look taller and sleek. It makes me think more of wealth, style or perhaps a high priced call girl
 

Wesley_S_Lewis

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I like all three of these covers and each for different reasons. Having not read your book,the first impression I get is a sense of danger because it appears that this woman is perched on the ledge of a tall building and could plunge to her death if she weren't holding on to this man. Or maybe this man is about to toss a drunk or sleepy woman off the roof. The door opening to darkness looks scary. The neon sign Sin makes me think that this takes place in a seedier part of a major city. This could be a hotel room. I don't know if you planned this, but the word placement looks like a wineglass and the ferris wheel looks like a slice of lime or perhaps the outline of an olive or cherry and she is looking right at the sin alcohol right in the glass.

In the first picture the font of the "W" is the Volkswagon symbol, but it also forms an "X" which makes me see the word sex written backwards in the word west. I think of prostitution.

In the second picture, the font looks worn through time and wear.

In the third picture, the tall narrow font makes the wineglass shape look taller and sleek. It makes me think more of wealth, style or perhaps a high priced call girl

Thanks for the great feedback!
 

Cindyt

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I agree with Veinglory that the letter spacing looked weird on the previous submission.

I think I've settled on all of the fonts except "WEST OF." I've added one more to the mix:

cover-comparison-5.jpg


Thoughts?

As always, any feedback is appreciated.

I like the last one best. It speaks to me louder than the others.
 

Earthling

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I seem to be the only one who likes the second one. :) The first one looks very self-published to me, which means there's something off with the font but I can't pinpoint it.

As an aside, if I glanced at this I would assume it was an erotica or erotic romance.
 

Wesley_S_Lewis

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As of right now, I think the full cover is going to look something like this:

full-pb-cover-mock-up-lr.jpg


As always, any feedback is appreciated.
 
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CathleenT

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I like the second one best, although I think thrillers usually show silhouettes against a cityscape. Might be worth checking the Amazon bestsellers in your category. Agree that this makes me think erotica, but I don't think it's wise to eliminate figures entirely.
 

Metruis

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As of right now, I think the full cover is going to look something like this:

full-pb-cover-mock-up-lr.jpg


As always, any feedback is appreciated.

You have WAY too many fonts, Wesley. I count possibly six? You should use no more than 2 fonts outside of the "Sin" neon splash logo which I do like.

Make "West of" the same font as "a Thriller". Make "West of Sin" on the spine the same font as that. Use that font for the header on the back. Keep the serif text for the blurb, since it's pleasant to read. If you feel you need to alter the "impact" levels use bolding, italics, or all caps/small letters like you have on "a thriller" under "SIN". That looks fine.

Right now, it creates a bit of whiplash, clashing with the chaos of the background–which I love.

The cover does read as erotica to me, not thriller. If I wanted to make that read as thriller, I'd add an overlay over the interior, crank the lighting to be really dramatic rather than photographic, take the feature off of the sexuality but instead make it like the continuation of the city washing over them, tempting them into its neon sin.

It's not bad. It's close. The font thing is the one thing that'll really make a professional graphic designer like me notice it's a self-made cover... it's one of the encouraged laws of typography, though of course laws of design exist to be broken (and the SIN neon sign is one such thing I consider an acceptable reason to break it).
 

Wesley_S_Lewis

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I like the second one best, although I think thrillers usually show silhouettes against a cityscape. Might be worth checking the Amazon bestsellers in your category. Agree that this makes me think erotica, but I don't think it's wise to eliminate figures entirely.

Thank you.
 

Wesley_S_Lewis

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You have WAY too many fonts, Wesley. I count possibly six? You should use no more than 2 fonts outside of the "Sin" neon splash logo which I do like.

Make "West of" the same font as "a Thriller". Make "West of Sin" on the spine the same font as that. Use that font for the header on the back. Keep the serif text for the blurb, since it's pleasant to read. If you feel you need to alter the "impact" levels use bolding, italics, or all caps/small letters like you have on "a thriller" under "SIN". That looks fine.

Right now, it creates a bit of whiplash, clashing with the chaos of the background–which I love.

The cover does read as erotica to me, not thriller. If I wanted to make that read as thriller, I'd add an overlay over the interior, crank the lighting to be really dramatic rather than photographic, take the feature off of the sexuality but instead make it like the continuation of the city washing over them, tempting them into its neon sin.

It's not bad. It's close. The font thing is the one thing that'll really make a professional graphic designer like me notice it's a self-made cover... it's one of the encouraged laws of typography, though of course laws of design exist to be broken (and the SIN neon sign is one such thing I consider an acceptable reason to break it).

Metruis, thank you SO much for this feedback. Now that you tell me the guideline about not using more than two fonts, I get what people meant about the fonts seeming too "busy."

Here are a couple of versions with just two fonts, not including the neon "SIN" and the sarif text for the jacket copy:

full-pb-cover-mock-up-b-lr.jpg


full-pb-cover-mock-up-c-lr.jpg


Do these look more professional? Any additional feedback you can offer would be greatly appreciated.

I'm going to play around with overlays and lighting, to try to give it more of a "thriller" feel, as you suggested. Thanks again.
 

MaeZe

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I don't like the 'no people' image because the composition with the panties is distracting; but on the back cover it's acceptable.

And I can't get past the man's ill-fitting shirt in the 'with people' cover.

Probably not something you want to hear at this point, sorry. Feel free to discard this opinion since it's not what you were asking about.
 
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Wesley_S_Lewis

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I don't like the 'no people' image because the composition with the panties is distracting; but on the back cover it's acceptable.

And I can't get past the man's ill-fitting shirt in the 'with people' cover.

Probably not something you want to hear at this point, sorry. Feel free to discard this opinion since it's not what you were asking about.

I appreciate the feedback, but that's not a shirt. Its a suit jacket, and the fit is fine except for the fact that he has a 120-pound woman hanging from him (which puts strain on the seams). Unless we wanted to put a chair there for her to sit on, there was no way to keep the fabric from puckering.
 

MaeZe

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I appreciate the feedback, but that's not a shirt. Its a suit jacket, and the fit is fine except for the fact that he has a 120-pound woman hanging from him (which puts strain on the seams). Unless we wanted to put a chair there for her to sit on, there was no way to keep the fabric from puckering.

Sorry. I am fine sidelining my opinion, really I am.
 

Wesley_S_Lewis

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I'm going to play around with overlays and lighting, to try to give it more of a "thriller" feel, as you suggested. Thanks again.

I'm having a hard time giving the cover more of a thriller vibe. EXAMPLE:

full-pb-cover-mock-up-thriller-lr.jpg


If anyone has any suggestions for lighting tweaks or overlays that might do the trick, I'm open to suggestions.