The book cover I want feedback on (Yipee Ki Yay-A-Navy) is an adventure farce, a humorous thriller (Think “McHale’s Navy” or “Stripes.”) about two de-SEALed Navy SEALs sent to the US southwest mountainous desert region to bring a killer to justice. It’s completely over the top.
Any suggestions will be appreciated. Please refer to the covers by number.
Here are the first two books that have already been published. Thank you.
This one would be a “no.”
The already published titles are stronger than any of the new ones. The originals have the illustrations integrated in and around the type and suit the feel a bit more. All of the new ones have the illustration just placed in the space at the bottom. Looks disconnected and weaker for it.
Also, because this new one has some awkward negative spaces in the type layout, you could help mitigate this by integrating type and image more closely.
And I second what printdriver said. Number 2 has to come off the table!
I think you can improve cover #1 or 3. Try to follow the example of the previous designer and integrate illustrations with the title.
Thanks for the feedback. I did try to integrate something (neither #1 or #3’s scenes work for that sort of thing) with the title. (The scene I was trying to depict was someone shooting an arrow from the lower left corner, and he was about to get pounced on by a mountain lion. He was shooting at someone who was catching the arrows on a shield. Anyway, it got way too crowded in the lower left hand corner.) I came up with this as an alternative. Any better?
Not really. Arguably worse. Why not remove the rock and move the lion up to the height of the -A- and have only the front half of it (redrawn) coming in from the left of the page, ie cut off as if the rest is going around the spine and on to the bc – if that makes sense. Will make it less static.
Thanks sprout. I couldn’t figure out where to put the tag lines. And I’m concerned that without the second hind leg and tail the mountain lion will not be identifiable as a mountain lion. (Maybe because I’ve been staring at it forever.) I made the victim a little smaller to give it some perspective as if he’s standing farther away.
