new book cover designs

[WannaBrie]

I had posted a design for my dad's book cover a while back and decided to try some new ideas. These are a bit rough, but wondering what you all think...Here's the first one...........

[danedawg99]

with the images in the text, it's really hard to read.

[WannaBrie]

Here's the second...

[shadepics]

The second I feel is better than the first. However, I think it would be a good idea to try a cleaner, simpler look - less images, yet strongly associated with wealth still. The title is pretty self explanatory so it's not like the images need to get across what the book is about, more what potential readers would desire to have.

[EC]

Hmm.

If you take away the title (which is very descriptive, I can only assume what it's about) -- I don't think the imagery communicates much about it. It could be a real estate book or a travel book.

Where are the "ordinary people"? The ones that look just like me ("Ordinary") and have achieved success in managing their money after reading this book? Maybe a couple standing outside a new house with a nice car in the driveway would catch my eyes ("I want that!! I better buy this book to find out how to do it!"). Or maybe travel would work, but I'd want to see PEOPLE travelling, not just a photo of a bridge.

Is it a model issue? I think with a book title with the word "people" in it, should have ... people. Maybe that's just me though. ;) Hope this scattered response is somewhat helpful.

[TenTwenty8]

I would do a quick search on Amazon for other books with "Money" in the title. Look at how most of them have bright colors in them. I like your direction with the layout in the 2nd one, but the colors are throwing me off. I wear black and blue on rainy, depressing days. :(
Have fun with word play. "Smart Money" to me invokes visions of dollar bills with a mortor board hat (the one you put on when you graduate with).
"Ordinary people" - I agree with EC...throw some slack-slums like us in it. I'll charge you $2 for my mug :D

Your typography is alright. Again, just look at other book examples for the type families they use.

Is the book serious...funny...etc. etc?
Design the cover to represent that feeling. And above all, have fun with it...make it stand out from the rest.

[emmerse]

I'd go to the book store (not amazon) and just stand in the money management/personal finance aisle. Stare straight ahead and see what stands out to you. Figure out why. Then look for other books that you didn't even notice. Figure out why you didn't notice them.

Take notes, bring them home and start over. You have some homework to do. :)

[EC]

^ yes I agree on the color too. "brighter days" rather than "serious (boring) money talk" ... navy and other dark colors turn "ordinary people" (ME! lol) away from books like this. Honestly the topic scares me in a way, but I am most likely the target audience for this. Is my guess. ;)

[Rocketpig]

Amongst the things others posted (imagery could use some work), your hierarchy on the text seems wrong to me.

You're accentuating the word "people". Well, that certainly doesn't tell me much upon first glance.

Try focusing on "Smart Money" as the eye-catcher. "Management" isn't very exciting or salesy, so I would focus on something where someone would glance at the cover and see "Smart Money Ordinary People", allowing the other words to recess into the background (but still leaving them there for the full title).

The phrase "Smart Money Ordinary People" while not being the full title, gives a quick glance immediate recognition of what the book is about.

What do you guys think about this?

[rockem]

yes the top one is very hard to read and the second one the text is reading backwards, and forwards. Research alot of books you will be competing against, think to yourself would someone pic this over a different book just by seeing the cover.
The stroked type makes the second one hard to read to, try and stay away from stroked type unless there is a good reason for it.
The pictures do not connect me to the title either,

[JaCkinbOx]

Someone tell me there's something ironic about seeing a plethora of vacation-related photography promoting a book for "smart money management".

[cjoe]

Okay.

there's somthing ironic about seeing a plethora of vacation-related photography promoting a book for "smart money management".

I'm sure you're aware that this is imagery is meant to represent the rewards of smart money management.

[JaCkinbOx]

Yeah, I am. :P But on the other hand, is the imagery prematurely attractive? Is spending money left and right on vacations really serving to promote smart money management?

Oh well, all that matters is that the author makes his money.

[G-Man79]

I think most folks comments are on the money. *Pun fully intended*. When I think of money, one color comes to mind: green. Slap some dollar green in there and I think you'll have more success in terms of public response/book sales.

Green fo' tha money, gold fo' tha honeys.

[WannaBrie]

First of all, I would like to say that I greatly appreciate everyone who took the time to view my images and comment. I would like to explain a few things about these designs and what has gone into them, etc… I am doing this for my dad, for free and I am a single mom with not a great deal of time to put into this. (Not an excuse, just explaining where I am at.) Also, I am doing this, as I said, for free, and the only images I have access to are those that are FREE. I do have access to several free image sites, but sometimes, what you can get there is just that…You get what you paid for…



That said, I did put a great deal of time into research (i.e., visiting books a million, barnes and noble, amazon.com, booklocker.com, etc) Just about all the covers I saw were, BORING! This is pretty dry stuff, even though my dad has managed to inject some humor and interesting points into his book, it is impossible for me to convey this to you and the intended audience without actually reading the book. I thought about illustrating the cover to include cartoon like images imagining what they could accomplish using these smart money management techniques, but I was afraid no one would take this seriously, as it is a serious topic. Perhaps that is something that needs rethinking? This book is not an easy sell, I mean, honestly, even though it’s my Dad’s book, I can’t even imagine what would make me want to buy it, unless it promised me something…



My dad had said that he thought (and CJoe touched on this idea) that Ralph Lauren commercials conveyed an idea that he thought might be effective…that is showing people what the end result of what they can get when they purchase the product (which is why I chose the “vacation imagery” to include in both the 2nd & 3rd designs).

I agree with those of you that said I should make the words… SMART MONEY… ORDINARY PEOPLE… more prominent.



I do agree that perhaps the choice of colors in the 3rd design could incorporate more green. (my first color choice). I do a lot of designs for financial institutions at work and the clients seem to really like the deep blue, maroon and grey combination. Again, I appreciate all your comments, although I wish there was some more positive input… I know this is not an exciting project, but I would like to produce something for my Dad that helps sell this book…Like I said, these new designs are rough, and I know they could use a lot of tweaking…I am trying to find more images of the actual “ordinary people” enjoying the end result of their successful money management. But I wonder if I am just wasting my time with that if these designs are just not doing it….



Sorry for such a long post, but I am getting a tad frustrated… (Of course my Dad loves all of my designs, but I want to do this project some justice!) I have attached the first design here, (even though it did not get a favorable review) perhaps I should incorporate some of this original design or ????

here is the original...

[ironhorse23]

Keep on pumpin' these covers out.
The original cover looks like something you would buy from 1-800 number at 4am.

Here's a suggestion... maybe incorporating an all text into a dollar bill.
So, just do a nice clean shot of a dollar bill replace text on the bill with your own. Or you can even create a "see through" brain george washington. associate your cover design with the title.

[JaCkinbOx]

That's some good suggestions, ironhorse. I wish I'd thought of that.

[TenTwenty8]

First of all, I would like to say that I greatly appreciate everyone who took the time to view my images and comment. I would like to explain a few things about these designs and what has gone into them, etc… I am doing this for my dad, for free and I am a single mom with not a great deal of time to put into this. (Not an excuse, just explaining where I am at.) Also, I am doing this, as I said, for free, and the only images I have access to are those that are FREE. I do have access to several free image sites, but sometimes, what you can get there is just that…You get what you paid for…


If you don't have agreat deal of time, then maybe you could ask a local design student to work on it. I'm sure they would be thrilled to spend the time making a piece they can put into their portfolio.

"You get what you pay for..." anyone see the irony in this?

[paulrandfan]

it looks kinda dated...

[Jason Fraker]

Most financial books I've seen incorporate green heavily into the cover's color scheme. Also, there's a lot of gold foil and big bold fonts. All this stuff symbolized growth, vitality and luxury. The Ordinary People angle kinda throws a monkey wrench into the works. Like some of the others have commented, I'm not feeling a connection between the title and the cover imagery. Maybe you could focus on just one of those images, or perhaps collage them all together, desaturate, and do a gradient overlay from green to white. That would unify them all, add the green element and clean things up again.