Islandfall: Book Cover v2

It looks very nice and professional, the bottom is particularly eyecatching, but it does leave the top slightly in the lurch.

I know very little about cover design, bar that which I've seen online. However, I'll add my 2 zimbabwe cents.

With nothing to catch the eye on the top (the tan skin tone is too muted to catch the eye, and you can't make it orange or that will just look odd), maybe a lava flow or an orange/red armband, a red gem in the staff, even some blood, or a red/orange/pink ribbon on her belt (or on the butt of her staff).

The whole thing seems pretty evenly lit, you might benefit from creating a contrast in light and shadow that draws the eye towards the centre.

The text stands in too stark contrast with everything else, put a little shadow underneath it in either black or dark brown to help it merge slightly with the background.

The spacing between N-D-F looks a little wide. More so on the N side than the F side.

With all that being said, it looks beautiful already, and I would probably buy it if I saw it on a shelf.

 

I like it. Piques my interest in the story. Throw the author name on there, and unless you really mess that up, you've sold me.

 

This image got my attention, and I immediately wanted to know more. But I rarely buy based on the cover; the job of the cover is to get me to read the back cover blurb, and that is what sells me.

I think that in terms of use of shape and color, in proportion of sky to earth to water, and in the placing of the people, you have succeeded in creating an intriguing design.

 

Made me curious too. I once had an art friend tell me after spending hours on your book why do it a disservice and not consult a graphic designer? I'm no artist but you raised my curiosity. Reminds me of Clan of the Cavebear with a twist. I'd recommend (if you haven't already) just asking a graphic artist's opinion. Whilst I may not be an artist, many people are. They too are potential readers and you want them onside. Good luck!

 

Hi,

I like it. I'd just bold the colours a bit to make it pop more. Also the metal guy below seems to be facing the wrong way for a reflection.

One thing I would suggest - since this is meant to be semi symbolic - add that symbolism to the text elements. You might split IslandFall into two words for example and make fall the reflection of island. Or alternatively make your author noame the reflection of the title. Also I think you need a more dramatic font.

Cheers, Greg.

 

Oh I really like it!

 

I like it overall. There are two things I'm not sold on, of which one I'll give some advice for. The juxtaposition between the two halves in the illustration feels like it needs a little something extra to get that fantastic symbiotic marriage going. The border feels a bit too sharp for me to not look at it an extra few seconds trying to tie them together myself. Pedantic opinion perhaps, but I personally get stuck on that. Nothing that would deter me from reading the blurb though, still a great overall illustration.

The thing I'd like to give advice on is the wordmark itself. Someone mentioned it earlier aswell. There are issues with kerning, which for non-design people simply means the individual and adjusted spacing between each character in combination with its neighbouring characters. To mee it looks like the wordmark has received some doubled default font spacing in Photoshop/Illustrator, which is the easiest way to stretch a word in this manner--however it often produces a wordmark that doesn't sit right with the viewer. Perhaps whoever created the wordmark even went ahead and paid attention to the spacing and thought he/she got it right, in which case I think I've got a feeling what was done wrong.

HUGE difference between mathematical and optical kerning. I cannot stress this enough, and it's a detail that once learned won't take more than 5 minutes of your time to correct. Well worth it. There are plenty of resources out there (droves of them on youtube for the instant-gratification learners), so I'll just link an introduction to kerning from an established tutoring company:

 

Really like the composite and overall style. Reminds me of one of those under the radar video games that ends up taking the industry by storm.

 

Nice clean font and spacing but the text and image are a little inconsistent in style.

The illustration is very cool but does still look like a digital painting, which makes me think about the image itself rather than the story.

I would try to stylise the image slightly more / make it less sketchy to solve both issues mentioned above.

Having said that, I’m being picky; this is better than a lot of covers I see on shelves.