NPA Cover first draft

[Luke]

http://www.burningwheel.org/pdf/npacover_scrnps.pdf

Hi folks,

I've posted a low low res pdf of the npa cover. let me know what you think.


-L

[Matt Snyder]

This cover leaves me scratching my head.

First, and most importantly, I don't "get it" visually speaking. YES, there's text explaining. I recognize that, of course.

But, when I see this cover, I'm not sure what the heck it is. "No Press." Hmm, ok, so why is there a press there on the cover? And even if this was called "Yes Press," what does the press image have to do with gaming at all?

I'd much rather see some treatment of the illustrations like you have set up for the back cover. I can see that, Aha!, there are a diverse variety of visuals, and hence, stuff to do in this book. Right now, it "feels" like some kind of non-fictin manual on how to get your RPG printed.

In designing a cover, you've got 15 seconds, probably less, to grab somone's attention, make them pick it up, and start making decisions (about whether to look inside, about whether to buy, etc.). I'm not especially compelled to make decisions about this book. I think it can be more colorful, even if it is a 2-color process, for example.

And, don't get me wrong. I know ALL TOO WELL how often we designers hear deconstructive criticism. I joke all the time about my most common feedback: "I don't know what I want, but I know it's not this." Thanks, schmuck. So, take this as commiseration, not raining on parades.

[Christopher Weeks]

I looked at it and thought "Hey!  That's totally hip! ...but the '8' should be bigger on the cover."

Then I came back and read Matt's comments and went back to look again.  This time, I covered up the back and spine with a book and looked only at the cover.  I kind of think the back cover has more grabbing power too.  The front is quite eye-catching (and I like the level of color) but as informative as the back.  (And that 8 is still too small.)  And now that I'm being picky, it seems like original and unique are mildly redundant.

Chris

[Jack Spencer Jr]

How hard would it be to turn the gear shape into the classic red circle with a slash "no" symbol (see the Ghostbusters logo) Putting that over the press logo would make the no press title make more sense and red is eyecatching. Although I don't know how practical it would be with the number of color/cost, etc.

[madelf]

Not rocking my world I'm afraid.
I do know what I don't like about this cover (at least some of it)
I'm going to be seriously harsh here, but I mean it in the best way.
(and I'm pretty sure you can take it)

I'm not really into iconic covers generally (though I think the NPA would actually be suited for one), but I think this falls short even on that level.

This is not an eye-catching cover.
If this was on a store shelf, I wouldn't glance twice at it.

Some specific problems I see:

Your most important information is in green, while the black is what contrasts most with the white background. That makes the secondary stuff stand out more than the primary title and such. Your biggest color contrast needs to be on the most important things, you can't rely on just the simple presence of a color to make that draw the eye. Black on white is too powerful to be over-shadowed by the green.

And... white background? It makes it look amateurish. I can understand wanting to do a two-color cover to save some money, if that's the goal, but please print it on something besides white (even if you go with black on a single color background it would be an improvement)

As was said before, there's nothing on the front cover (other than text) to indicate what this is about. That's a mistake. The cover should tell you what is inside the book. Books (like it or not) are judged by their covers. The cover needs to tell me that I have to buy this book... even if it's a lie.

I'd knock down the size of the big wheel logo. Like Matt, I also question whether it makes sense for a "No Press Anthology". But mainly it's just too much, stuck onto too little. Shrink it down, & keep it to the top of the page. (I'd even pull the title out myself. Just make the printing press in the wheel a logo & place the title seperately)

For a peek at what's inside, try lining up a row of tall & narrow images (slices of the interior images for each game, sort of like your little cubes on the back cover, but taller) along the bottom half of the cover.

Hope that helps more than it annoys.

[quozl]

I suggest taking the 8 pictures for the 8 games and blending them together for the cover similar to the pictures on the cover for the upcoming GURPS 4e: http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/basic/img/basic1_lg.jpg

[Luke]

Hi All,

Regarding the NPA: Well, there definitely is an issue with the title and the concept. I chose to have a logo designed that emphasized the conceptual process and also offered a bit of irony: If it's the No Press RPG Anthology, it shouldn't be in print now should it?

Personally, I like conceptual stuff rather  than image-specific stuff. More open designs allow the viewer to interpret to their tastes, and often allow for a depth of meaning that one cannot easily evince from a fully formed or realistic image.

And then there's the fact that such an endeavour needs a logo, something to kick off the brand identity of the project. A logo always seems a little awkward in the beginning, but the meaning becomes embedded through use. Take nearly any logo out of context and you'll see what I mean.

I guess I am sort of rationalizing, but there is also another reality at hand -- it's what I've got to work with. So I'm going to try to make the best of it.

As for "more color" and "do it like Steve Jackson", I must respectfully decline. Simple and graphic are the way to go, especially in a market soaked with SJG-derivitive images.

That said, the cover does need reworking. It's a bit kludgy. I'll work up another version on it tonight. Chris is right, that 8 has got to be bigger!!

thanks!
-Luke

PS the logo concept was "Pixel to Press to Paper", not that that is important.

[Jack Spencer Jr]

I had just fiddled with the front cover using PSP. I took the green out of the title and made the whole gear green and left the title and the press graphic white, inspired a bit by Luke's comments and it's 200% better.
I also but a larger 8 on a star shape, as is available in PSP. It looks good, too. Not bad looking for a Q&D job.

I'm saving the file for now. Just contact me if you want to look at it. Please specify the format.

[Luke]

round 2.

http://www.burningwheel.org/pdf/npacover_only.jpg

http://www.burningwheel.org/pdf/npacover_sprd.jpg

How can you beat "Fun and Good?"

I'm pretty happy with these. But I can still see some room for tweaking. Thanks everyone for your feedback. (Also got feedback from my friend Mike Morel of Cthulhu Sex Magazine, who is an excellent designer.)

-L

PS I can't really justify my use of green, white and black aside from my suspicion that these colors will stick out like blood on the white linens in a game store.

[Christopher Weeks]

I hate to be difficult but except for the bigger eight, I like your first cover better.  The background gears work on the back and spine, but I think they're too much on the cover.  Also, it looks like several of the eight iconic images from the games are transparent and they look crisper on the original cover with the white background.

If you can have the background gears transition from the way you have them to completely invisible over the front half of the spine and the first inch or so of the cover, that might make a nice effect that draws the eye around to the back of the book.  Or what if it said

Pick me up, bitch!

on the cover...or something...I mean, it could be more polite, but still grabby.

Chris

[Matt Machell]

A couple of musings, might not be much help:

The green is a bit too sickly. Maybe alter the hue to be more bluey?

The typeface for the title needs to be cleaner and sharper. See it at a distance and you don't get much more than a green splodge at the moment. Maybe more letter spacing?

My urge would be to simplfy things. Keep the cogs and maybe use the press not as a central focus, but as a small logo in the corner.

-Matt

[Clinton R. Nixon]

Luke,

What is up with the negativity around here? Whiny bitches, all of ya.

I love this cover. I'm an audience that's already been sold, obviously, so my opinion may be as useful as a colander in a cup store.

The press is a great image, and works well against the very clean cover.

[Valamir]

My non gamer girlfriend who generally nit picks apart the illustrations I buy for games and makes me send them back for fiddling little tweaks here and there, liked the cover just fine.

Her biggest complaint (somewhat ironically) was that the "8" was far too big and led the eye away from the important stuff.

She also didn't realize it was an "8" until I told her.  She thought it looked (on the front cover, likely because of the overlap) more like an "&" and kept asking "and what?" until I figured out what she was talking about.

Other comments: she didn't understand what the stripe was through the gear on the cover until I told her it was the slash to say "no" as in "no press" at which she announced

"then it needs to be dark like the gear and over top of the thing in the middle, or else it just looks like a stripe...and then why isn't there one through the gear on the back cover...they should be the same...oh and why does the 8...I still think it looks like an 'and' overlap on the front cover but not on the back...?"

Other than that she thought it would be suitably appealing to motivate the typical attention deficit gamer type to pick up and look at.


For myself I'd go with the "original short form" tag line from the back cover over the "original and unique" tag line from the front...I agree that's pretty redundant.  And tag lines gain strength through repetition.

"Original Short Form RPGs" is pretty much your branding statement.  You should use that frequently and in exactly the same grammatical structure repeatedly throughout the  book.  Perhaps as part of a page footer.  That's what tells you what "No Press" is all about.

[Luke]

A couple of musings, might not be much help:

The green is a bit too sickly. Maybe alter the hue to be more bluey?

Colors: The mission, and I chose to accept it, was to not use blue or red or gold in the cover design -- the most overused colors out there.

Gamer: "What the hell is that sickly splooge over there?" He ambles over, "What the hell? No Press? What does that mean?!" Frustrated, he pulls the book out and flips to the back cover for answers. "Ah ha! Games, and lots of them. Neat!" Rummages in pocket for cash. "Hm, I'm short this week after buying WoD 2.0 and GURPS 4e and the Monster Burner, but I'll definitely buy this next week."

Cut to next week. Gamer: "What the hell is that green splooge?! Oh yeah, 8 games! Let's see, I paid nearly $100 for two and a half games last week. This week I can pay $20 for 8 games." He quickly does the math, "I'm sold!"

Chris: This is a low res JPG, you can't really judge "crispness" or "image quality" by it. I would have to post a high resolution image for you all just to get an idea of what it might look like.

Personally, I think the gears will draw the eye around the back. And it's funny you should mention, "Pick up the cover, bitch!" I  am toying with putting Fun!, Good!, and Short! ghosted back into the gear works on the front cover.

Ralph: Good point about the mantra. And tell your girlfriend she has some interesting image literacy quirks. Not bad, just interesting. Personally, I think the 8 balances the composition. But who am I to say?


Anyway, what's it gonna be? I'd love to hear from the contributors -- who are all probably wracked with cold sweats right now, "THIS is the cover?!" ::shiver:: -- which mantra they like best: Complete, Original, and Unique? Original and Short-form? Short-form and Unique? Something else entirely?

heh.
-L

edit: my girlfriend didn't like it either, which is a bad sign, but you can't win 'em all.

[Jeph]

I like the second cover. It grabs. The "Includes Discernment by..." blurb though is a bit confusing--it makes it seem like it only includes Discernment and Cell Gamma, which is extra wierd when comboes with the "8 entire games!" bit. Maybe change it to "including"? Or something like that.

And Complete, Original, and Unique.
--Jeff