Your Brain on Design: A Graphic Design Blog | Leslie Tane Design » Avert Your Eyes!

2010: Still Judging a Book by Its Cover

Leslie Tane Design — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 13:37:01 +0000

Long time readers (hi, Mom!) may remember my round up of book covers for Eat, Pray, Love. During a recent trip to the bookstore my design snobbery raised its ugly head again. This time, after looking at shelf after shelf of mysteries, I literally chose a book by its cover.

Interesting lettering, quirky artwork, classic looking limited palette, background texture adding depth to the design. Not only did I think this was a winner, but I saw that there was a whole series of books which carry through this design:

These books were published by Bantam Paperback, and kudos to them on the excellent work.

Would I have bought this book, though, if it looked like this?

(Bantam 2006 mass market paperback). Probably not. The cover isn’t terrible, but isn’t good, either. It certainly doesn’t stand out to me in any significant way. The art strikes me as a much too literal interpretation of the mystery inside.

This one would have been a contender, but compared to the recent paperback designs it pales in comparison:

(Bantam 2005 hardcover)

(Bantam 2005 paperback) This cover feels very discordant to me. I really hate the top, very classical, type treatment of the author’s name (Shàngó) with the deco feeling treatment of the title. And the colored woodcut look of the art seems to match neither style.

(Doubleday 2004 hardcover) Does the art match better here? Maybe. The type still aggravates me.

And then we have the audiobooks:

Nothing horrible here, but nothing setting me on fire either.

Not only did I buy the book because of the excellent design, but I was more willing to give the book content the benefit of the doubt as well. Design makes a difference.

What do you do when your colors don’t look right in Safari?

Leslie Tane Design — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 17:31:17 +0000

I’ve been working very hard, which hasn’t left much time for blog posts. I’ve decided to start posting quick tips here — the solutions to problems I’ve run across in my work. Some of you are working designers, and these tricks may be helpful to you. Some of you are design aficionados, in which case these kinds of posts may not be interesting , but I’m working up a new feature for you, too, in the near feature.

Problem: You create a JPG image in Photoshop that has the same background color as you’ve specified for your web page. The goal is to make the image background blend into the page, so that the image is not boxed.

The page looks great in Firefox (and other browsers), but when you open Safari, the background colors don’t match. You double check — the hexadecimal codes are the same. What gives?

Solution: Check to see if your Photoshop JPG has saved a color profile with the file. Safari, unlike other browsers, will respect this setting and actually change the colors in your image to match your specifications. It’s pretty sophistiated of Safari, but it’s usually not what you want when you’re designing a web page. Save all of your Photoshop JPGs without an attached profile, and you should fix this problem.

ETA: Here are some example screenshots:

JPG image on color background in Firefox

JPG image on color background in Safari, saved with profile

JPG image on color background in Safari, saved WITHOUT profile

You can see these pages at http://www.leslietanedesign.com/example/ (with profile) and http://www.leslietanedesign.com/example/test2.html (without profile).

Wanted: photo editor

Leslie Tane Design — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 13:40:55 +0000

Quick — what is this?

If you said a yellow fetus floating next to three red blobs, you’re in agreement with my mother and me.

If you said a drink called “The Normandy,” you’re correct.

The usually redoubtable New York Times Magazine used this picture in its weekly food article, this one about Calvados. It’s hard for me to believe that someone found this image appetizing.

What do you think? Are we seeing things?

Graphic Design fails

Leslie Tane Design — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 14:07:22 +0000

I love failblog.org. If you could use a laugh, check it out. I’ve posted some of my favorite design related fails below. Bad design always reminds me that good design really is important. Some of the best design is the kind that you hardly even see, or at least notice. You wouldn’t give that Vermont Maple Syrup Sign a second glance if it was designed correctly.

see more pwn and owned pictures

Here come the 80’s, redeux

Leslie Tane Design — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 17:10:55 +0000

We’ve been having a 1970’s revival in graphic design for the past few years. Orange, brown and yellow? 70’s color revival. Graphic patterns, featuring colored circles and swirls? 70’s revival.

1970's era design, via http://www.berting.nl/seventies/

2008 image, via istockphoto (http://www.istockphoto.com)

As in all things design, things change. And, as much as I hoped this wouldn’t happen, the 70s are making way for the 80s (again). I was in high school in the 1980s and the fashions and styles of the times are burned into my memory in a horrific mishmash of leg warmers, thick shoe laces, Bon Jovi, big hair, belted oversize shirts, pegged pants, neon, and acid wash jeans. See below — and please note, this is NOT me. (If you’re a real glutton for punishment, check out the Flickr group 80s.)

http://flickr.com/photos/hepe/483361489/

Why do I think 80s are on their way back? Here’s just a taste of what you can find in stores today:

Target and Urban Outfitters

Urban Outfitters

So what does this mean for design? I’m forecasting jewel colors (sapphire blues, ruby reds, emerald greens), a return of thicker typefaces from the ultrathin ones we’ve seen recently, neon (I hope I’m wrong about this!), drop shadows and outlines. Here’s what graphic design looked like, circa the 1980s:

I’ll be very interested to see how this plays out in the next three or four years. Done right, the best of the 80s could translate into new, interesting design. After all, ten years ago few people were looking at 70s design (avocado green appliances! bell bottoms! orange!!) and longing for its return.

What do you think? Are there styles (design, fashion, home or otherwise) that you’re hoping will come back? Are there pinstriped jeans in your future? Are you too young to have fully experienced 1980s fashion and are looking forward to a nice pair of Ray Ban aviators? Or are the 80s a bad dream?

Wake me up when the book is over

Leslie Tane Design — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 18:01:48 +0000

The award for most boring cover design on a fiction title goes to… America, America: A Novel by Ethan Canin. Snoozefest.

The cliche art, the clunky transparent white area behind the title, the uninspired choice of De Vinne for the type, the flat black and white text colors, the blah placement of the text. This looks like a completely uninteresting book.

Surprisingly, though, that doesn’t seem to be the case. The reviews I’ve seen about this book are all raves. There are no less than 29 enthusiastic blurbs on the Amazon page. And my local Barnes & Noble hung a giant version of the cover in its front windows (which is why I noticed it in the first place).

Usually a book by an acclaimed author that gets the full PR push from the publisher tries a little harder in the cover department. I wonder what went on here?

The best stock photo I’ve seen in a while

Leslie Tane Design — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 13:42:19 +0000

Um, dude in the middle? What are you looking at?

From the truly wonderful istockphoto collection. I use istockphoto all the time. I just don’t use this picture.

Type Hell

Leslie Tane Design — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 13:58:40 +0000

I was checking my blog stats the other day, and I noticed that I get a lot of hits on the category Avert Your Eyes! Knowing that you’re interested, I’ve been on the lookout for bad designs to post. Well, look no further.

Subject matter aside, the typography on this poster is horrific. Bodoni (Friday March 21st) is a very traditional serif face and it does not match with that modern sans-serif (Kevin Federline’s set in Helvetica Neue Extended Light?) And that apostrophe in Federline’s? That’s a foot mark, damn it. Apostrophes are curly or slanted, a foot mark is straight up and down. For shame!

Moving down the page, ack, ack, ack. The odd blackletter-ish “BIG 30″ is trying to be street and failing (perhaps an ironic wink from the designer? Somehow I doubt it.) It also evokes a horror movie vibe. At least I’m horrified. It’s completely mismatched with the type above and below. And where did that grunge script (“Birthday Bash”) come from? Does that say “fun party” or “desperate to be hip”?

When you use a company logo, you have to use their fonts, so I can’t argue with the introduction of four more typefaces in Pure, Caesar’s Palace, and Company. Sadly, I can hardly see those logos since my eyes are burning from the rest of the poser (typo, but I’m keeping it). Make it stop!

Enter Grim Reaper

Leslie Tane Design — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 18:10:54 +0000

Huge poster size ad seen in a nearby mall. The headline reads “Closer than you think.”

What’s closer? Infirmity in a hospital bed? Old age? The cold hand of death?

Read on to discover that there are career opportunities in Springfield, a nearby city.

Oh.

Do you think they were being deliberately misleading, matching the ambiguous headline with that picture? Or is it just bad design and copyrighting?

Adobe supports bad design

Leslie Tane Design — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 21:26:58 +0000

I’m now in my PCB phase (post computer breakdown. For anyone who’s wondering, it was a total loss. Insert heartbroken sigh here.) This means that I’m getting all new software (silver lining), including Adobe Creative Suite 3. In the process of installing my new toys, I saw a folder in my Illustrator folder called “Cool Extras”. Could you resist? Inside were “Sample Files” and “Templates” and inside Templates were “Basic” and “Inspiration”. I’m always open for a little inspiration. I double clicked on Poster.ait in the “Band” folder, waiting for design inspiration to strike.

You’re joking, Adobe. Right?

Design-wise, I’m not blown away, but why did they stretch the type??? “Andre Molobore Sectet” is Myriad at 53% of actual width. Are they freaking kidding? I did a whole blog entry about this (The 5 Deadly Design Sins: Sin #1). Hey, Adobe, DON’T STRETCH YOUR TYPE. It looks terrible.

Perhaps someone at Adobe needs to read my blog…