Sunday, October 25, 2009

The Grinding Gear Cover + Updates


Art by Laura Jalo. I'm not entirely sure what to do about logo placement and effects though. What do you think?

Laura says the interior art should be done in the next couple weeks, and Mr. Dow says the maps should be done soon. I'm working with the printer to come up with an affordable yet impressive physical format. The original idea would have looked spectacular but cost $15 through Noble Knight, plus shipping, which is excessive since the actual adventure content, sans maps and handouts, is 16 pages. The US really has to do something about this Euro-Dollar exchange rate.

When all those elements comes together, this will go to press.

I'm still finagling Insect Shrine playtest dates, and in the meantime, the next project is underway, with the working title The Old Miner's Shame. It will be a short dungeon adventure (maybe 12 pages, maybe 16, with just one map) about dwarves. I have some larger projects on the horizon (the Sanitarium project and an introductory box set RPG) but I don't want to get busy with anything large until Insect Shrine is out the door.

13 comments:

  1. I'm no designer, but I know what I like. How about flipping the image and making the logo bigger, kind like this:

    HERE

    That way your eye goes from the end of the logo to the statue to the main figure on the body pile then out the image.

    Just a suggestion.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oops, how about a link to a bigger file:

    HERE

    ReplyDelete
  3. Because of the particular style of this image, maybe having the title hand drawn and painted by the same artist would make for better consistency. Here's a crude attempt to simulate that.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I don't want to flip the image, because I want to keep what the artist did. The last one there, well, I've been trying to add different effects to the logo to make it look good and stand out, but I haven't come up with anything in particular I like yet. I do want to keep it as lettering because it's a gear... it should be built for precision. :)

    I have lots of experimenting to do...

    ReplyDelete
  5. To me, combining neat, precise lettering with that painting seems like a pretty difficult task :) Anyway, here's another quick sketch, probably not what you're looking for

    ReplyDelete
  6. I'd keep it as is, but center the logo vertically so an equal amount of blue is above and below the text.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I would suggest coloring the logo -- dark blue, dark green or reddish-brown would look good.

    ReplyDelete
  8. @Elias: I like your second alternate version.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I'm with Elias I like the art and the logo but I don't think they go together so well.

    (the logo being very sharp and clean, and the artwork being messy and primal)

    A simple solution would be to have the logo segregated visually from the artwork, something like this:

    http://www.listal.com/image/products/180/0142437395/books/sixty-stories.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  10. Of suggestions above, I favor the one from Zak S. Another suggestion: Title printed in white, in a single line, near the bottom.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Nice, at least as nice as a pile of rotting corpses can get. The colouring reminds me of John Blanche's work when he was doing covers for Sorcery! (the Fighting Fantasy series). Compare: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sorcery1_shamutanti_hills.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  12. If this is going to be a private press affair (IE something for those initiated into the old school fold) would it be too much to remove the title from the cover altogether?

    ReplyDelete
  13. I'm with Zak S. et al.: I like the logo, and I love the artwork, but to me they don't seem to go together well. I'd probably do something like put one on the front cover and the other on the back (which one goes on which doesn't really matter).

    ReplyDelete