Tentative cover concept for PUNK

[Daniel Solis]

I was reading through some old threads about RPG cover art and I noticed someone mentioned that the "collage" theme of old-school movie posters, like Indiana Jones and Star Wars, hadn't been used very much.

Considering that PUNK is to be a genre-based rpg with lots of potential character types in a variety of universes, I thought the collage format would be best for a PUNK cover. Then I found that I had, in fact, done this sort of project as an assignment for class where we had to do a poster advertising the Royal Shakespeare Company's 2005 US tour. The challenge in that assignment was relatively similar to the challenge of designing the cover for PUNK. That being "how do I incorporate disparate subject matter into a cohesive visual work?

Anyway, I thought I'd link to the poster I made and ask if its visual style would work as an RPG cover. My specific design goals for the cover are for it to stand out on a book shelf from at least twenty feet away, have a unique treatment for cover art and, just for kicks, to have some sort of colloquial name like "the little red book" or something like that.

My tentative solution for the cover is the same as the poster I did for RSC, large areas of sharply contrasting colors to draw in the viewer, distressed photography to enhance dramatic impact, typography and art at two levels of viewability. When put together, the cover will draw in the viewer from across the store, then across the aisle, then finally prompt the potential buyer to actually pick up the book.

Even if the book remains in PDF format, the same principles will apply to the cover when it's shrunken down to thumbnail size. Large fields of sharply contrasting color act the same at a small size as they do from a distance.

As far as content being reflected in the cover, I expect the mood of many PUNK games being full of high-intensity action, lots of panic, lots of desperate paranoia and lots of off-balance personalities.

So... This is the basic look I'll be going for when I make the PUNK cover. Does this suitably solve the general design problems of an RPG cover and meet the specific goals for the PUNK cover?

[greyorm]

I think it would work; the style appears to meet your stated design goals.

[Jared A. Sorensen]

I think you should just use that cover and replace RSC with PUNK. Heh.

[Daniel Solis]

I think you should just use that cover and replace RSC with PUNK. Heh.

Now that's a confusing cover right there:

PUNK: Royal Shakespeare Company 2005 US Tour... THE ROLE-PLAYING GAME!

Unfortunately, the photos I used for this poster were from the Royal Shakespeare Company's archives. RSC has total ownership of those babies. Damned shame though. It's going to be a challenge photographing people being convincingly emotional without having them look like the designer's friends hamming it up for the camera.

[quozl]

It's going to be a challenge photographing people being convincingly emotional without having them look like the designer's friends hamming it up for the camera.

The guy in the bottom left corner does look like he's hamming it up. Cut him out and the cover looks great.

[Daniel Solis]

The guy in the bottom left corner does look like he's hamming it up. Cut him out and the cover looks great.

Thanks for the praise, but like I said, I can't use any of the photos in this poster since they're property of the Royal Shakespeare Company and are of RSC actors. The only reason i could use them when making the poster was that it was a class project and not something for which I'd be getting paid. I'll have to take new pictures myself and I imagine non-actors will ham much more than professionals. I'll keep working on it.

[samdowning]

Looks like a good cover idea to me.  But then again, we have covers like this and this and this so who are we to talk?  :)

[Lxndr]

The guy in the bottom left corner does look like he's hamming it up. Cut him out and the cover looks great.

Thanks for the praise, but like I said, I can't use any of the photos in this poster since they're property of the Royal Shakespeare Company and are of RSC actors. The only reason i could use them when making the poster was that it was a class project and not something for which I'd be getting paid. I'll have to take new pictures myself and I imagine non-actors will ham much more than professionals. I'll keep working on it.

I'm not sure how expensive it'd be, but have you considered paying photographers for the rights to use some of THEIR work?  One would imagine it's similar to paying artists, which might make it rather expensive for a collage piece such as what you're wanting to make, but I thought I'd at least throw the idea on the table.

[Daniel Solis]

One would imagine it's similar to paying artists, which might make it rather expensive for a collage piece such as what you're wanting to make, but I thought I'd at least throw the idea on the table.

I think I'll ask some of the photography majors if they'd be interested in something like this. I might get be able to talk one into a bulk deal if I use their photography exclusively for the cover collage. Failing that, it won't be too much of a hassle (and it will be much cheaper) if I photograph people myself. I've done a bit of this already for other projects, so it's not that big a deal.