A cool flipbook video

Book cover examples

I snook into a bookshop in Limerick city and took a couple of shots of how books are laid out. To see what makes a good cover stand out.

There is no point asking the girls in the shop why the layout of the books is the way it is, because they get every shelf mapped out by the head office.

The book "Freedom" has good layout, because you can see the text from wherever you are standing in relation to it.



The book "Ghost" also caught my eye, because it's large title and contrast - yellow on black.




Where to go when in search of good book covers:
http://nytimesbooks.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=36101228455

They are worth visiting...

a draft for the book

I chose to keep the background plain white with no images of Venice or anything you normally expect to see on a book cover. Because the word "Venice" is already on the cover, we don't need a picture of gondolas or architecture. I wanted to keep it very simple in order to catch a customers eye on a bookshelf full of covers that are trying to tell a whole story on a page (front cover). The synopsis is on the back of the book, so the front has to work as a lighthouse in the wide ocean of book covers (sounds tacky, but you know what I mean...).

It is a story about transformation, so the blue square starts to fall apart and slowly, bit-by-bit, transform into a circle.

A website where I find help with Photoshop: eHow.com

some sketches for the book cover

Sheet no. 1
First one on the left should carry the idea that the main character - Gustave von Aschenbach was a writer. The story happened in early 1900, when the typewriter had already been invented.

Second in the top row - blue box starts to come apart and slowly transform into the big red circle. Aschenbach's discipline and dignity starts to give way to stronger emotions like love and passion.

Third - wanted to use a symbol, like the Crown of Thorns for sacrifice and passion. Used blue and red intertwining arrows that move in the opposite directions.

Fourth and fifth - used a boat that is trying to move away from chasing conscience.
Sixth - arrows again moving in opposite directions.

Sheet no. 2
same sketches, larger.