Very good deductive reasoning on the title. EXACTLY. Antagonist is a big wine drinker.....loves spiders and creepy crawlies. As I said....just a concept. Very well done on guessing the titles background, im impressed
Okay, but... is that what you're looking for in a book cover? Something that requires "very good deductive reasoning" to figure out? Or do you want something that communicates to your audience more clearly, with less detective work required?
My first guess on the genre was that it was a murder mystery, a classic Agatha Christie type of book. I think the spider would have me leaning even more in that direction.
I thought romantic thriller or Lifetime movie... which nowadays is probably similar to the old school Skinemax movies of my formative years. Remember Traci Lords and Shannon Tweed? I think most of my early education in the, um, ins and outs of the female body was due to those two ladies. We didn't have internet porn yet, so you took it where you could get it. The Victoria Secret catalogue was up there too.
I found myself in both the Vamp, and Mystery camps. The spider would feel kinda off. Though it is simplistic by design, I could not help but play around with the concept a bit, seeing as neither the Title nor Author name seemed to jump off the cover. So I took and built a basic premise model to stand in, while I searched for fonts that work as well as being big/bold enough to be seen on a thumbnail. Basically came up with 3 diff fonts for the title that look like they may work, and still fit the theme, though I like yours as well just that it is a tad small for a thumbnail. And as for your Author font it is kinda thin, but that is easier to fix considering it works well at it's approximal size. Also I am not familiar with the name running altogether on the cover JOESEPHSTARKE just kinda read funny to me as all one word. I will post my musings in concept for font choices if you would like a bit of variety to play with. For the author I went with Metal Gear Solid 2 Medium, to add a little more boldness to it. And chose Divinne Swash, Fiddums Family, and I can't remember the last one right now. So anyways this is all for fun, and opinion.
Thank you for the thorough and articulate response. I found it to be extraordinarily helpful. I have another that we are playing with as well which is a mime mask split down the middle in black and white. I will post it here when the concept is finished. Here is one of the font variations we played with coupled with the inclusion of the spider. Again, thank you for taking out such time and making me feel quite welcome. .
@SkinnyPuppy yep, not a prob. From your cover art, it says Noir to me with the style. Now that I think about it, the title font should really fit the aesthetic. Could take a while while to find one that works with the imagery. I am thinking maybe a vintage style font would complete the look, for that mysterious/dark feel. That really seems to be the only thing that is out of place, everything else looks great. Though I think a few more opinions would be good to get as well.
Concept two...had to modify the title as research showed TONS of novels named BORDERLINE.....Cave Troll...where ya at?
I like this one. The title is a little too right on top of the image of the mask, though, and I’m not a fan of the hinting in the title font. Looks unsettled and you already have another visual thing going on with the font as regards the splatter effect.
I do really like it. I like the boldness of the color palette, which is reflected in the clear, bold shapes of the imagery. The clean simplicity of it is what sells it.
I have to agree with @Wreybies that the title is too on top of the mask. My current cover for my WIP has similar issue, but an easy fix. I don't find the corroded font distracting though, it just well doesn't seem to fit the image. What is the genre(s) that the story is about? That would give a better indication of what type of font to use.
I actually like the texture or colors or splatter or whatever it’s called. What throws me off is the hinting. Maybe I’m using the wrong term (that’s always on the table), but I think that’s what it’s called in GIMP. Notice how the letters look mildly scattered? Compare that to the author name at the bottom that’s very cleanly lined up. That’s what I’m referring to. The combination of the color deal in the font along with the font’s mild wonkiness is too much for me, especially when the rest answers to such a clean aesthetic.
I see what your saying with like the B and O being slightly smaller than the other letters in proportion, which would mess with the sense of uniformity visually. Also I suppose you might be onto something in regards to the smooth texture of the rest of the imagery. The corroded texture of the block bold lettering does detract from that smoothness of the rest of it. Does it kinda give off more of a Mil or Horror vibe with the font style being used, or is it just me? I am leaning to a much more hand script font with a Noir feel to it would complete the whole thing. Sometimes bold lettering just isn't the way to go. (The places I go to get fonts calls it corroded, which embodies cracked, dilapidated, and melted looking texts.)
It is in the genre of psychological thrillers. Successful Psychologist meets Borderline Personality Disorder, BPD destroys his life. The mask represents the two sides of the BPD afflicted, and the font represents the instability of a BPD patient.
