Cover Design Suggestion
Sunday, 5 September, 2010 | Management 3.0 team 
Today I sent a suggestion for the cover of my book to Addison-Wesley.
All books in Mike Cohn's Signature Series follow more or less the same layout. This means my degrees of freedom for the cover design are rather limited. But... less is more. And creativity sometimes benefits from having tough constraints.
I experimented with my own illustrations (including Martie the Management Model), to see how they would look on the cover. But I'm sad to say that it just didn't work. My drawings are good for white backgrounds, not for black ones.
And so I dove into my personal photo archive, and selected one of my favorite photos, from my vacation in Chile, five years ago. I inserted the picture into my prototype book cover design, et voila! I immediately liked what I saw.
The picture is from Laguna Tuyaito, near the border with Argentina. It was the most beautiful place I had ever seen. For me it symbolizes how a team can be awarded for self-organization. My partner and I rented a car, took all kinds of precautions, and we drove for hours through the Atacama desert to get there. It was worth it.
Note that this is just my suggestion. The publisher may have a different opinion about it. But Mike already told me he's OK with it. And I think I'm happy with it as well. For now.
What about you?
Reader Comments (6)
Hi Jurgen,
In my personal opinion this cover looks dull. To that cover I'll add your funny Martie draw in the same shade of green as the edge of the cover, over-layered on the beach. It will look better to get a little bit out of the border. It will express better your personality and the way that you want the book to be read.
On the other hand, remember it's just a cover. people buys a book not a hallmark card so what's in the book is that matter, and a little bit less the cover. You'll benefit to be integrated into a great books series ...so stick with template design if it's absolutely necessary.
Thanks for the suggestion, but that simply won't work. Using a line art illustration over a photo looks very ugly. And combining black line art with a black cover also doesn't work well.
Personally, I'm happy with the cover. But I will discuss alternatives with the publisher.
Thanks!
Nice, but I'd consider a different color for the secondary text. The green doesn't stand out IMO.
Thanks! I think the secondary color should be the same as on the other books. It is green there, and seems to work fine. It depends on the shades of green and grey they will use. My picture here is just a prototype.
I like this cover. I think the landscape image, with hills in the background, goes really well with the content of the book. While I usually am not a big fan of green text (being partly color blind), the green looks readable on the black background (and I agree staying with the series theme is a must). I am looking forward to seeing the final version, with "Some Very Important People" actually being named!
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