Pop and Locke's Last Heist - Cover Design
This is the promotional art and kind of the cover design for Pop and Locke's Last Heist. You can see how the masthead has been fleshed out with all my usual retail foofarah. The background is a collage of various stock elements, too. But the real hero is James Stowe's illustrations of Pop and Locke. I added some cel-style shadows, gradients and teal backlights to really make them feel like part of the scene. Hope I did his illustrations justice!
Very nice. It's a lot of work to make a masthead look like it belongs on a cover and isn't just an after-thought. This really works.
ReplyDeleteIllustrations are incredibly well-incorporated/dynamically framed, great integration! Is the use of family twice in the drop title necessary? (Feels a little awkward to me).
ReplyDeleteNice to have followed this from just a mention on the Writer's Dice page, to the Artist Style Sheets, to the informative Tips on Hand-Drawn Fonts, and now to such a slick, engaging finished product. Blog-nificence in action! Level-up.
Thanks! I didn't know whether the cartoony masthead would work for a genre that is normally so slick, but I'm cool with it. Sets the tone that these heist stories are not going to be Ocean's 11 or Leverage.
ReplyDeleteMaybe not? It was intentional double-use, but I have a pile of alternatives I cut through already. :p
ReplyDeleteVisually, the drop title as is = a perfect fit/balance. Semantically, it's out of beat for me; family is a heavy word and you're using it as object and modifier in close proximity.
ReplyDeleteThat gives an added emphasis that may, in fact, drive the central tensions of the game, in which case it makes total sense and it's worth the rhythm skip for someone like me.
The modifier, however, is a chance to sneak in an added association of the game experience/tone---but how to do that elegantly? Since I don't know the agency in the narrative, I can only share that I heard a 'skip' and it made me think, not imagine/feel. Thinking always feels wrong.
Just my thoughts.
btw - the Teal, nailed it with the teal!