Cover design for genre neutral setting. How?

Brad J. Murray · February 12, 2013, 06:09:26 PM

Good idea, consistency is nice, but the balance is terrible. Try to crop the images and arrange them so that the page has a more deliberate feel to it. Don't be afraid of asymmetry, but try to make it seem more intentional and less random.

That's probably not all that helpful now that I read it. It easier to do this kind of critique with a lot of paper and pencils.

Zak S · February 12, 2013, 06:11:29 PM

Quote from: Sacrosanct;627608So crop and zoom in, if I'm understanding correctly?

Yeah, because we don't want to see the dragonworm and the word DRAGON and go "Oh it's a fantasy RPG" right? You want all the pics legible immediately

Sacrosanct · February 12, 2013, 06:16:20 PM

Those won't be the final images anyway, but just placeholders to get the point across. But your overall point is to see things closer up rather than squinting. And a shift of the panels to fall on the cover more balanced instead of favoring the right side.

Bedrockbrendan · February 12, 2013, 08:08:08 PM

Quote from: Sacrosanct;627670Those won't be the final images anyway, but just placeholders to get the point across. But your overall point is to see things closer up rather than squinting. And a shift of the panels to fall on the cover more balanced instead of favoring the right side.

I think all you need to do is extend the top left box to match the left side of the one below it. The logo balances out the fact that the bottom left one doesnt line with the bottom line of the right column images.

Personally I think it looks great. As far as zooming I would only soom the top left image, the others look good to me. The cover really grabs me. The title is cool too but makes me think it less generic and more magic.

VectorSigma · February 12, 2013, 08:25:38 PM

Are your fonts final? That subtitle screams 'Conan d20' with that font.

Piestrio · February 12, 2013, 08:29:22 PM

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;627718I think all you need to do is extend the top left box to match the left side of the one below it. The logo balances out the fact that the bottom left one doesnt line with the bottom line of the right column images.

I'd go the other way and make each box differently sized. Completely non-uniform.

Granted it would be harder to get the right artistic composition that way but in the end would look better than uniform boxes.

In my limited experience anyway.

Brad J. Murray · February 12, 2013, 08:35:21 PM

Got to agree with Piestro -- simple symmetry is better but boring. Something more elegant is called for here! I'd start by sketching four-celled shapes on paper and once you have something (and maybe the shape is somehow iconic for your game), try to fit your pictures into it.

Bloody Stupid Johnson · February 12, 2013, 08:45:08 PM

Quote from: Sacrosanct;627572OK, so based on feedback, what about something like this:

I like it. The boxing does help a bit making it clear its genre-neutral rather than transgenre.

Brad J. Murray · February 12, 2013, 09:07:43 PM

For example, I was playing around with putting the title vertically down the spine-side instead of at the top, and having the four pictures make up four segments of the wyrm logo, unframed so picture elements float free over the background, suggesting the limbs &c. of the wyrm. Has potential and is certainly more striking than straight-up symmetry.

Sacrosanct · February 12, 2013, 09:09:43 PM

Quote from: VectorSigma;627722Are your fonts final? That subtitle screams 'Conan d20' with that font.

No, not final. In fact, I was looking at it and thought I need to unify them anyway. the "universal role playing" should be the same font as the OGL and prod ID font