a critique site for book lovers, hosted by author Jude Hardin
Thursday, March 15, 2012
On Ellicott Street by Davee Jones
What's the genre? What is it you like or don't like about this cover?
Does it make you want to know more about the book? Does it make you want
to BUY the book? Discuss.
This cover doesn't work for me. The upper image of the couple is fine, but the flames at the bottom is not well integrated into the picture.
I also don't like the text work on this. I don't like the drop shadow work, some of it looks as if the pixels are breaking up. I really dislike the publisher's text at the bottom, it really looks out of place.
Oh, hey! A Flaming Fart cover! Yeah, he's flashing hot all right...
I would not really know the genre from this cover. Okay, romance. But the bright daylight implies almost sweet romance, yet the pose suggests conventional romance, and the flames and "hot flash" (really? I've had, like, a year long hot flash and it has NOT been fun, do you really want to evoke menopause?) imply erotic.
There has been some basic attempt at typography, but in this case it just doesn't work well. The snell-like script font leans too far away from the conventional serif. Kerning is uneven, and even worse, the actual word vertical spacing is off. Yes,the caps have about the same amount of overlap, but insistence on maintaining baseline leaves the actual words looking unbalanced. Not a fan of the blurb, its red shadow or the overly hard drop shadow on the author name.
Genre: generic romance.
ReplyDeleteThis cover doesn't work for me. The upper image of the couple is fine, but the flames at the bottom is not well integrated into the picture.
I also don't like the text work on this. I don't like the drop shadow work, some of it looks as if the pixels are breaking up. I really dislike the publisher's text at the bottom, it really looks out of place.
Oh, hey! A Flaming Fart cover! Yeah, he's flashing hot all right...
ReplyDeleteI would not really know the genre from this cover. Okay, romance. But the bright daylight implies almost sweet romance, yet the pose suggests conventional romance, and the flames and "hot flash" (really? I've had, like, a year long hot flash and it has NOT been fun, do you really want to evoke menopause?) imply erotic.
There has been some basic attempt at typography, but in this case it just doesn't work well. The snell-like script font leans too far away from the conventional serif. Kerning is uneven, and even worse, the actual word vertical spacing is off. Yes,the caps have about the same amount of overlap, but insistence on maintaining baseline leaves the actual words looking unbalanced. Not a fan of the blurb, its red shadow or the overly hard drop shadow on the author name.
For me this would be a redo I'm afraid.