I was sorting through some old images and came across this gem…
This is the original cover design I was sent for the slipcover of the Greek “Dragon Tamers” hardcover. Looks good, right?
If you’re not a gamer, reader or designer then yes – it’s shiny. Attention grabbing. Looks good.
…But there’s something not quite right. Apart from the strange character in the bottom (the publisher’s mascot?), the book’s protagonist is a black-haired girl. So immediately, some mental alarm bells are ringing about this cover designer’s attention to detail.
Wait, haven’t I seen that guy before…?
That’s the cover art for Final Fantasy X, voted by Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu to be the greatest video game of all time and fifth in IGN’s “Top 25 PS2 Games of All Time“. Selling 6.6 million units worldwide, it’s a pretty big deal – the Final Fantasy series is one of the best selling video game franchises.
I pointed out the mistake to the publishers and it was redone, though I never did get an explanation as to how that happened.
This amusing event shows that book cover designers are far too often really bad. There are plenty of great ones who can sum up a book in a simple image, and there are a lot of famous, stunning covers – but there are also thousands of ‘designers’ who think it’s acceptable to Google Image Search the keywords that are vaguely related to the work and badly edit it all together with a Photoshopped font on top.
Emilie says
I’m nodding along to this. Being a Doctor Who fangeek, you can guess what’s coming next…
In short, I’ve noticed that while the books published in the 90s, like the Virgin New/Missing Adventures have lovely (for the most part) hand-drawn cover art which often directly relates to the book’s content, things went downhill after Virgin lost their publishing licence. The BBC books just have pictures of the Doctor, his companions and maybe something else, which some sort of Photoshop effect bunged on top (Spiral Scratch is a particularly vomit-inducing example). The books accompanying the new series are no better: they just take a publicity shot of the Doctor and his chosen companion, add a nice shot of a landscape, and hey presto!
OK, I’ll stop now :]
E.Maree says
Definitely agreed. I have one of the older Tom Baker books and the painted cover is gorgeous. I’ve also got some of the new series books and the new covers are good looking in a ‘modern’ way and the photos are nice, but they don’t give any feel of what the story is about. The only thing they’re selling is the Doctor’s image on the cover, and it’s expected that’ll be enough to get anyone to buy it and the story can come second.
Oh yikes, that Spiral Scratch cover. It’s a bit someone left an old photograph out in the sun, then took a ray guy to it.
Emilie says
I’m nodding along to this. Being a Doctor Who fangeek, you can guess what’s coming next…
In short, I’ve noticed that while the books published in the 90s, like the Virgin New/Missing Adventures have lovely (for the most part) hand-drawn cover art which often directly relates to the book’s content, things went downhill after Virgin lost their publishing licence. The BBC books just have pictures of the Doctor, his companions and maybe something else, which some sort of Photoshop effect bunged on top (Spiral Scratch is a particularly vomit-inducing example). The books accompanying the new series are no better: they just take a publicity shot of the Doctor and his chosen companion, add a nice shot of a landscape, and hey presto!
OK, I’ll stop now :]
E.Maree says
Definitely agreed. I have one of the older Tom Baker books and the painted cover is gorgeous. I’ve also got some of the new series books and the new covers are good looking in a ‘modern’ way and the photos are nice, but they don’t give any feel of what the story is about. The only thing they’re selling is the Doctor’s image on the cover, and it’s expected that’ll be enough to get anyone to buy it and the story can come second.
Oh yikes, that Spiral Scratch cover. It’s a bit someone left an old photograph out in the sun, then took a ray guy to it.