The designer says:
This book is a dystopian action, soft sci-fi. The target audience is adults age 19-30 or so. The book has LGBT+ themes, and later books in the series will contain somewhat less action and more political maneuvering as the story progresses, though action will still be present. The story primarily focuses on a violent rebel group that seeks to overthrow the repressive government. I am not the author, just a friend who is also not a professional designer. I did make this cover, however, and the author also agreed to changes based on your feedback.
Nathan says:
It’s a very eye-pleasing cover, although I’m not crazy about the typeface used for the series title, especially as it clashes with the other typeface used.
My bigger question is whether it communicates what you want it to about the story and setting. It’s got a bit of that Hunger Games vibe, but that series isn’t the be-all end-all of dystopias; what can you do to communicate “dystopia” or “repressive government”? Uneven paint in place of the smooth red background? Rust and bolts on the dragon? A militaristic stencil in place of one of the fonts?
I’ll let the others give more ideas.
This has great potential. The fonts are all wrong, color placement, style. Try a simple serif font for author name and something more ‘pointy’ for the title. You want less rounded edges and I’d probably go all caps for that. I’d make the subtitle the same simple serif font as author name but I’d style it, maybe with the shield thing as the series branding instead. but I’d make it something I could reuse on the next book. The shield thing is cluttering it up where it is. I recommend a textured background, as Nathan said rust would be awesome or a picture of a destroyed city (I’m picturing smoke behind the snake leaving just glimpses of a ruined city)(I’d probably add some scatter to that too for fun and genre expectation). I’d also try adding some more light distressing to the snake thing with a layer mask. I badly want to play with this…lol. I can picture it in my head.
The question that comes to mind is whether the only reason a dragon is on the cover is because ‘dragon’ is in the title. That is very common and there is a chance you have unintentionally limited your options.
It’s a fine graphic, but the concept doesn’t actually communicate much aside from draconic imagery. This could be fine if dragons weren’t utilized heavily in the imagery of several genres, my first guess was a right-wing pseudo-political drama about a rising China.
You can always come back to this idea, but trying to come up with a few concepts that come from entirely different directions and communicate something more on point could be a useful exercise, for piece of mind if nothing else.
My comment vanished! (Or I stupidly never clicked Post Comment)
I like the dragon and the title. I normally prefer all caps, but this works for me given the weight and texture of the lettering. Try to limit cover typefaces to two.
The background is boring and both white and black should be avoided at the edges of cover art (for sites where the background is also white or black).
If the symbol is significant to the book perhaps presenting it as being etched into a stone background or slab or corroding steel lit with prominently red light would work better.
Being a series you need to consider branding now. Having the text appear in the same place on each cover with only the image changing is a good way to tie the books together. By spelling the volume number, keep in mind the next book will be T-W-O and the one after is T-H-R-E-E. You might consider using 1, 2, 3, etc. Another way is to eliminate the number as part of the series title and instead include the number as a separate element (the numbers could be etched into the background and lit with different colors, with only the main foreground element changing for each book, for instance)
https://imgur.com/a/WG5sSvF
I posted some rough ideas. Ignore the crappy dragon, it’s just there to show you an idea of placing part of your dragon tail over the text. Make two layers and place one over erasing parts and one under so it looks interwoven. The color of the blue is picked by INVERTING the brown so it matches it really nice. That can be done for any color.
The font is called CYBERTOORH
The effect is beveled with 2 clipping masks one with a rust texture and another with just rough black edges shadowed beveled and faded a bit to make it look distressed.
The second example is the text made to look like the city with a simple layer mask. The one beneath it is that same exact thing but lightened with a white overlay to make it brighter.
The black and orange one is the rust overlay in the same color as the flames. Picking colors from the background makes the text match better,. I didn’t bother do all the letters and the black circle beneath the 1 should be your shield shape.
Both of those backgrounds are free from photoshop with just simple clouds added. But you could pick anything that matches your setting and distress the buildings like that, add smoke and fire or dead plants etc. the city one might need more cloud to hide the city a bit more so the snake stays the focal point
Author and smaller words are Brixton TC picked for its slightly futuristic look. the placement might need tweaking but try to never have it look forced into the spot.
PS. I like the effects and color on the word Hidden but you should have the same effect on the entire title and the font wouldn’t look quite so ’round’ if you blurred the lighter lines in the lightening effect that you have that make the d etc look like circles. That with the bevel line so strong along the top edges make the font rounder than it is.
you might like the font Sansation for author name. its sans serif but has futuristic letters while still being nice and subtle but a sans serif would give the entire thing a harder feel and if this has some romance you might want to stick with a serif
https://www.dafont.com/sansation.font
Gosh, everyone else is stealing my bag! (Fonts). As The Unofficial Font Queen of CC.com, let me just be far more eloquent than everyone else: Font Bad.
I’m also not wild about that red background. It’s so dark that your quite strong graphic is being lost in it–if you look at Savoy’s quite excellent burning city in one of the covers that s/he put up, you’ll see how gorgeous that could be, against something like that. The bluey-green/silver-black set s/he has in the middle is just FabuBalls, and I’d snap that up in a minute.
In terms of the fonts–I’m a great believer in the idea that we have tropes and stereotypes and all that for a reason. Why fight city hall? What’s wrong with your basic grunge font, screaming “HEY YOU I’M DYSTOPIAN FICTION!”? Nothing at all. Now, if you do use a “cities burning” backdrop, you can just use a strong sans serif, and be done with it–if you have a strong background graphic, with a lot going on, and that dragon, ditto, you don’t want to then throw a fancier/display font atop it. Then you’ve got the kitchen sink design methodology going, and it’s overkill–and it kills your cover.
CGF Locust Resistance would be tasty for this. (It has some nice glyphs that raise it from boring sans to nearly perfect for this cover, some sharp edges on the G, [Dragon] particularly). Oxin War might work–I’d have to see how its curves align with the dragon symbol. Could clash; might be magical–you never know until you mock it up.
VTKS Distress might be okay, or VTKS Money2. I think that’s better on a very simple background, but..Schkorycza might fly, but I think it’s overused.
I’d then pick one other font–it can be a sans or a traditional serif, and I’d use it for both the byline and the tagline/subtitle. You might consider a sans that has a Compressed face–so you could use the regular weight for the Byline, and a compressed/thin face for the Subtitle. Subtle differences, but still, design consistency. Nexa Sans is an excellent font for this–has about a zillion faces. I have some others, if you can’t find anything, just post back here and I’ll make some other recs.
So, my vote is, use the City Burning background; (the post-nuclear bomb terrain seems a bit too-too); slap a strong grunge/distressed font on there (need to think about color), and then back it up with two different faces of the same sans for the author name and subtitle, and you’d be there.
I LOVE when you talk font! I learn so much and always find a new one to add to my collection. Thanks for being you!
Awwwwwwwwwww, shucks. Thanks! Made my day–truly. 🙂
I like the art, but to me it says “thriller,” not “sci-fi.”
Adult dysto is a tough nut to crack. I think Savoy’s got the right idea with some variant of “dark, muted photo of a stark landscape.”
See…I think that the problem is, it doesn’t say thriller. Or sci-fi, or Dystopian YA fiction, or, or or. It’s a nice graphic, but it doesn’t instantly convey the genre. It could very well be all of those things, given the right font and right background. And that’s not great, in terms of book cover design. We know that a cover has only seconds to grab the viewer–if they glance and think that the cover is for a different genre, it’s a lost opportunity, possibly a lost sale.
When I looked at it, my brain went “That looks like a thriller.”
So, yes, it says thriller to me.
You are entitled to feel differently, but not to tell me that my reaction is wrong.
??? I didn’t say your reaction was “wrong.” I said that my thinking is that it doesn’t convey the genre clearly at all, that given how the font was treated, it could be almost anything. Yes, sure, it could say thriller to you. Or Dystopian to Savoy, or sci-fi to Ron Miller, or, or or. If you look at the comments, almost everyone had a different take on what it looked like.
That was my point. Everybody seemed to see a different genre in the submitted cover. To me, that says that the design (and font treatment) is inadequate–we should all instantly know what the genre is, because that’s what we want readers to do–instantly know what genre the book occupies.
That’s all.
I’m not a fan of the examples because to me they suggest apocalyptic more than dystopian. That type of background would need to come from the author and designer working off the story.
The title is overdone. Just because you have access to all of those filters and textures doesn’t mean you are obligated to use them. Unless they materially add to the potential readers understanding of what kind of book this is or what it might be about, I would not burden the title with them. Readability of the title takes precedence. But discussing the art is really a moot point since it is the artwork where the main problem lies.
The art is attractive, but it doesn’t really give me much of a clue about the book. There certainly is no hint of any of the themes you talk about in the description. I suspect that the symbolism of the device is meaningful to you and perhaps to anyone else who has already read the book…but would be a mystery to the uninitiated. There is the word “dragon” in the title and a dragon in the art, with a Japanese-like design in the background. Taking a wild guess, I would have assumed a book with a Japanese or at least Asian setting…perhaps a period piece or a contemporary thriller. But not the story that is described.
My only suggestion would be to go back to square one one the art.
A few mockups with background imagery
https://i.imgur.com/LLgYAiE.png
https://i.imgur.com/6N54qGM.png
https://i.imgur.com/VzkyI6N.png
Thank you to everyone for the amazing feedback!
I made a few mock-ups incorporating suggestions from various commenters.
Special thanks to:
B.L. Alley for the suggestion to change to numerals for the series numbering and the idea that just a burning/ruined city was more post-apocalyptic than dystopian.
S. Savoy for the burning city background (complete with a very nice mock-up) and the suggestion of Sansation font for the author and series.
Hitch for CGF Locust Resistance for the title font and general recommendations.
Please let me know if these are moving in the right direction:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/qyxq5xlpdp6urdu/AACnpQrbnzzy5WxiAbP92QyZa?dl=0
Can you explain the significance of the dragon and the symbol?
Also, in your new examples the dragon, lettering, and image blend together. If you can separate them better I think you’re on the right track. You don’t want busy for both foreground and background.
I concur that it’s blending together a bit. You need something to set those apart somewhat. I’ll leave it to the graphic artists, to suggest the “how.” Also, I think you need a bit more dystopia, or dystopian feeling, behind the dragon–right now, it seems a thriving city–the wee bits of fire in the water (?) aren’t enough to convey the destroyed feeling of dystopian fiction. Perhaps a brown smoggy overlay? On the city in the background?
Obviously, I think the title font is solid. I think you might need to play with colors, shades and tints for the lettering, to find something that works better than the white.
HTH.
Evidently, that dragon symbol is a terribly important part of the story…but it is just as evident that you need to be already familiar with the story to understand its significance.
You may be heading in the right direction with the artwork of the city with its reflection in flames—a very nice concept—but you not only obscured it by superimposing the dragon, you made the entire cover a confusing mess.
I really think that the dragon motif needs to be abandoned. It simply does not convey any sense of what the book is supposed to be about. Adding additional visual elements only serves to make the cover cluttered and confusing. No amount of fiddling with the type is going to fix that: discussions about the handling of the title should be put on hold until the issue of the artwork is resolved.
Please let me know if these are moving in the right direction:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/qyxq5xlpdp6urdu/AACnpQrbnzzy5WxiAbP92QyZa?dl=0
Not really.
The first, as I have just mentioned, is simply confusing. In the second, you have placed the dragon directly on top of the most significant part of the background art.
If you really, really insist on including the dragon image, why not take a clue from the title and make it partially hidden within the city art? That would at least go toward keeping the dragon from dominating the cover—which it does in all of these versions, integrate it better so that it is part of the cover image rather than something superimposed over it, and at least reflect the title—“Hidden Dragon.” It would also result in the emphasis being put on Savoy’s wonderfully suggestive city, which conveys an idea of the book’s subject, rather than on the dragon, which conveys nothing.
If I might be so bold — As an exercise, try switching the prominence of your title and subtitle. THE NEW DEMOCRACY: Book 1, The Hidden Dragon actually hits many of the points you’re struggling with. It sells the political angle right away, and people would be more curious as to why the dragon logo was so important. I agree with other commenters that your image is close and just needs tweaking if that’s the image you keep.
I had another idea based on the description. A dystopian cityscape featuring a government-looking building dominating the image with a handful of rebels side-by-side looking up at it. A David and Goliath motif.
Kinda like this (but with better detail in the background)
https://pasteboard.co/HBJpDYf.png
This is an amazing mock-up. I love it! I think it captures the genre really well.
The color scheme is improving but your elements are unbalanced. Your dragon is lost but I think it’s likely a simple fix. (Please keep in mind that half the time ideas don’t play out and need to be rethought so bear with me if this doesn’t work.) Try sliding the city up so the burning parts are right beneath author name. then use the color picker and pick a blue from the sky. Then use a few cloud brushes and make smoky clouds under the dragon in shades of blue and black and gray. Only leave hints of city showing. Use the opacity setting on the cloud layers so they blend nicely, and I’d also use a layer set to soft light with the same blue above the dragon and use a grunge brush to dab it on where light would fall on it so the dragon looks more integrated.
I’d shrink the shield and reposition it so it’s half off the page, keeping it behind the text with the main portion under the 1. (But if the shield isn’t working, ditch it. Use it for the back cover instead. Or use it in place of a letter like the O in democracy or Dragon or Nolan)
I’d shrink the dragon just a bit to avoid touching the author name or maybe interweave him with author name having the whisker above and leaving sharper ear/head thing below.
Then, when I had all those elements I’d probably scatter some sparks in orange. But you’ll need to play with dragon placement. Don’t worry about hiding parts of him if it isn’t working to show those parts, like the tail might be better obscured complete behind the text, disappearing into the cloud layer as if he’s emerging. Use your clouds to highlight him. Hints of background is good enough as long as it’s clearly a destroyed city and not random lines.
Thank you all again for your feedback! I’ll continue to read and consider comments, but I’ve passed my ability to make timely mock-ups. I’ll answer specific questions, though, if anyone asks any more.
To answer several questions in one, it’s not so much that the dragon imagery is so terribly important as that my initial research suggested that a central, symbolic motif was a common theme for dystopian fiction covers, especially series covers (Hunger Games, Red Rising, The Broken Earth, Secondborn), and that was the best I could come up with.
I’m willing to abandon it, though, since almost everyone supported a background cityscape and the consensus is that the dragon clashes.
You’re absolutely right about the single symbolic motif; the problem is that your dragon is really driving the cover now. It’s no longer merely a symbol (a la Hunger Games), it’s…I guess the issue, for me is, it’s a DRAGON! It’s not just a symbol anymore. It’s so large and overpowering. Yes, of course, Hunger Games had the bird in the loop (and later the actual Mockingjay), but the TITLE “Hunger Games” was a tell. Plus, initially, it was a small part of the cover–it was only later that it was larger. “The Hidden Dragon” could be sci-fi, sci-fantasy a la Pern; could be virtually anything.
Perhaps the answer is to use the burning city with the dragon MUCH much smaller, or itself in a circle of some kind. I’d have to see it, but if you’re going for that dystopian symbol theme, I think it needs to be smaller, with some clue in the backgound that it’s a dire future.
HTH.
Thanks for the specific feedback. I think you’re right, and I’ll be back to the drawing board with all the feedback and ideas, as well as some excellent font suggestions.