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Welcome Your Vote On Potential Book Covers For A Repro Of My Handwritten Copy Of A 2,000 Yr Philosophy Text


peekay

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Hi all,

In the past I posted a project where I handcopied a 2,000 year philosophy book - The Enchiridion of Epictetus. https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/272296-project-handcopying-a-small-book-epictetuss-enchiridion/

Thanks to everyone for their comments.

I'm now in the process of reproducing this handwritten project into a book. I used 99designs to invite designers to suggest covers and would welcome the votes of the members of fpn on their favorites.

 

Over a 100 designs were submitted and top finalists are here for your review - http://99designs.com/other-packaging-label-design/vote-bnsjlm.

For the first ten responders who vote and private message me, I'll send a free copy of the book when done.

 

I look forward to the discerning views of fpn members.

Thank you.

Edited by peekay
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  • peekay

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There doesn't seem to be a way to actually vote -- just leave feedback.

I have no stake in this, so my completely unbiased vote, based solely on appearance and legibility, would be for #88.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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I like 92, with 47 as a second choice.

"What? What's that? WHAT?!!! SPEAK UP, I CAN'T HEAR YOU!!" - Ludwig van Beethoven.

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I vote for #47.

 

On a side note, great job, and I'm glad to see that it's going to be produced in a book! :D

 

All the best!

 

 

 

~Epic

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1348/557449480_2f02cc3cbb_m.jpg http://null.aleturo.com/Dumatborlon/Badges/5EH4/letter.png
 
A sincere man am I
From the land where palm trees grow,
And I want before I die
My soul's verses to bestow.
 
All those moments will be lost in time.
Like tears in rain.
Time to die.

 

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There doesn't seem to be a way to actually vote -- just leave feedback.

I have no stake in this, so my completely unbiased vote, based solely on appearance and legibility, would be for #88.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

Hi Ruth, If you can, it would me aggregate feedback if you could assign a star rating (at the link) for your favorite and if you have time leave feedback for others. I have you down for a copy.

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I vote for #47.

 

On a side note, great job, and I'm glad to see that it's going to be produced in a book! :D

 

All the best!

 

 

 

~Epic

Thank you Epic!

 

Did you get a chance to assign stars to the designs in the link with your comments? That would help me aggregate the results. I have you down for a copy.

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Hi Ruth, If you can, it would me aggregate feedback if you could assign a star rating (at the link) for your favorite and if you have time leave feedback for others. I have you down for a copy.

Thanks but you don't have to send me one. I probably won't have time to read it (although kudos for such an endeavor).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

ETA: Okay, just voted. Obviously other peoples' opinions are way different from mine.... :rolleyes:

Edited by inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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I like #92 best, followed closely by #54 and #88... I have not commented on the individual designs, but generally I think that less is more. Having said that, I realise that my choice was influenced on how German editions of novels look like and compared to English editions they are usually quite "plain" and "dull"... Let's call it understatement...

Andreas

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Sadly, I’m not a fan of any of them. Most are concentrating too much on the handwritten nature of the text rather than the content of the book (ie, they don’t tell me anything about the subject matter). This is perhaps understandable but it’s not the function of a book cover. By way of example, if someone published, say, a biography in a lavish and very limited edition for which the type was hand set, the pages printed letterpress, and the volumes hand bound in leather, would you expect the cover to illustrate those processes or the subject of the biography?

 

Designs 21, 42, and 54 do not highlight the handwritten text so much, but each has its problems: 21 and 42 both sacrifice the readability of the title for visual effect by splitting the words – 42 in particular reads as though someone called Epic Tetus wrote the Enchi Ridion – and 21 also suffers from glaringly inconsistent letter spacing in order to make the word divisions equal in length. Design 54 is nice and formal but I don’t get the point of the vertical line and I think the middle block of text could have been bolder or larger because the font is too slight to stand up against such a dark background. I also think both text blocks are placed too low on the page.

 

If the book’s title really were Enchi Ridion by Epic Tetus, I’d go for 42, but unfortunately it’s not.

Edited by dhnz
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Sadly, I’m not a fan of any of them. Most are concentrating too much on the handwritten nature of the text rather than the content of the book (ie, they don’t tell me anything about the subject matter). This is perhaps understandable but it’s not the function of a book cover. By way of example, if someone published, say, a biography in a lavish and very limited edition for which the type was hand set, the pages printed letterpress, and the volumes hand bound in leather, would you expect the cover to illustrate those processes or the subject of the biography?

 

Designs 21, 42, and 54 do not highlight the handwritten text so much, but each has its problems: 21 and 42 both sacrifice the readability of the title for visual effect by splitting the words – 42 in particular reads as though someone called Epic Tetus wrote the Enchi Ridion – and 21 also suffers from glaringly inconsistent letter spacing in order to make the word divisions equal in length. Design 54 is nice and formal but I don’t get the point of the vertical line and I think the middle block of text could have been bolder or larger because the font is too slight to stand up against such a dark background. I also think both text blocks are placed too low on the page.

 

If the book’s title really were Enchi Ridion by Epic Tetus, I’d go for 42, but unfortunately it’s not.

Good points. Thank you.

 

One intended function of this cover is actually to set it apart from the other printed copies of The Enchiridion because of the manuscript inside. Any suggestions on how to do that?

Edited by peekay
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Good points. Thank you.

 

One intended function of this cover is actually to set it apart from the other printed copies of The Enchiridion because of the manuscript inside. Any suggestions on how to do that?

 

Not off the top of my head, but something may come to me. The trouble is that, given this brief, you have two subjects competing for the cover: the subject matter and the writing. The best I can come up with off the top of my head is to have a design that reflects the book’s contents and then add the credit line ‘Text copied by hand by Louis Kim’, with the whole credit in your handwriting, as per 21 and 47.

 

If you do want the cover to display more of your calligraphy, then a variation on 42 might be your best bet: the handwriting is kept to the background but still gets the point across, and the spare text-based treatment of the rest of the cover is not out of place for a work such as this (despite what I’ve said earlier, I don’t think a cover has to visually depict the subject matter through an image – text-based covers can be very effective at conveying a mood of formality or learning). But the word breaks do bother me, so I’d recommend removing them, which is going to leave you with a typographic problem to play around with – how to fill that white space enough that the text doesn’t look lost in the middle but without going so big that the words have to be split. Maybe an asymmetric arrangement of the text would be better than centred. It’s the kind of problem that I like to just sit in front of a computer and play around with the text until things start to fall into place.

 

PS. Of course this is just one person’s opinion, and you should go with what you’re happiest with, not what some bloke on the internet says!

Edited by dhnz
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1. #90

 

2. #47

 

3. #92

 

I'm actually not a big fan of any of the choices...most seemed "too busy" to me. Of the choices listed, I thought #90 was the cleanest.

Good luck with this project.

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Not off the top of my head, but something may come to me. The trouble is that, given this brief, you have two subjects competing for the cover: the subject matter and the writing. The best I can come up with off the top of my head is to have a design that reflects the book’s contents and then add the credit line ‘Text copied by hand by Louis Kim’, with the whole credit in your handwriting, as per 21 and 47.

 

If you do want the cover to display more of your calligraphy, then a variation on 42 might be your best bet: the handwriting is kept to the background but still gets the point across, and the spare text-based treatment of the rest of the cover is not out of place for a work such as this (despite what I’ve said earlier, I don’t think a cover has to visually depict the subject matter through an image – text-based covers can be very effective at conveying a mood of formality or learning). But the word breaks do bother me, so I’d recommend removing them, which is going to leave you with a typographic problem to play around with – how to fill that white space enough that the text doesn’t look lost in the middle but without going so big that the words have to be split. Maybe an asymmetric arrangement of the text would be better than centred. It’s the kind of problem that I like to just sit in front of a computer and play around with the text until things start to fall into place.

 

PS. Of course this is just one person’s opinion, and you should go with what you’re happiest with, not what some bloke on the internet says!

dhnz - all very helpful insights. thanks.

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I voted on the site! Thanks for the opportunity to be able to enjoy your lovely work :D

 

 

~Epic

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1348/557449480_2f02cc3cbb_m.jpg http://null.aleturo.com/Dumatborlon/Badges/5EH4/letter.png
 
A sincere man am I
From the land where palm trees grow,
And I want before I die
My soul's verses to bestow.
 
All those moments will be lost in time.
Like tears in rain.
Time to die.

 

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