Another cover design, requesting your judgement

[Eicca]

I am continuing my quest to create a cover for my thriller novel that is clean and minimalist, good as a thumbnail, different from other thriller covers and contains enough natural hints to the story's premise. Today I came up with what I feel is my best contender yet. If you would be so kind as to let me know what you think, I would greatly appreciate it.

[bdcharles]

Yeah, I like it. Varying typefaces, a simple yet suggestive graphic. I suppose the only change I might make is maybe to apply an embossed type filter to the title, to give it a little depth.

[Phil Istine]

I like the minimalism and I assume the graphic and the manipulation of the letter 'O' are gunsights.
On the negative front, I could just about make out a hint of blue writing. When I magnified it, I could see the words 'A thriller'. It may be about size but it was hardly visible, never mind readable, but the printed version might be fine. Dark blue on black was as problem in that regard, but I don't have the most up-to-date computer monitor. I suggest you try printing a full-size copy before passing it.

[Eicca]

I like the minimalism and I assume the graphic and the manipulation of the letter 'O' are gunsights.
On the negative front, I could just about make out a hint of blue writing. When I magnified it, I could see the words 'A thriller'. It may be about size but it was hardly visible, never mind readable, but the printed version might be fine. Dark blue on black was as problem in that regard, but I don't have the most up-to-date computer monitor. I suggest you try printing a full-size copy before passing it.

That happened to me too. I think it's a screen thing. If I hold the same image up on my phone, right next to the image on my computer and same size, I can read the blue text just fine. In fact, it looks far better on everything BUT my computer screen.

[vranger]

I get the concept and I like the target and the gun shadow. However, I think as presented it looks amateurish, and probably what's standing out to me to give that impression is the stair-step look of the center dots. Plus, including the scope effect twice may be overdoing it.

With rare exception, this is pretty much what happens when any of us tries to do our own cover art. lol There are LOTS of artists out there who can take your concept and give it back to you as polished art for $100 to $150. I recommend you explore options.

[Eicca]

It's definitely still a draft, and at some point I probably will send it off to a pro designer. Depends on how much of my editing budget gets used up though...

Here's a slight tweak. Centered the crosshair, removed the redundant crosshair from the title, changed my name out for something slightly less generic-looking. If I could figure out some way to make the large swaths of straight black area more interesting, that would help.

[JJBuchholz]

A crosshairs behind a cityscape. I think it's pretty damn cool.

-JJB

[luckyscars]

It looks like you are using three separate fonts? If not, it has that impression, probably because your name is lower case, the title is upper case, and the 'a thriller' (which I think's totally unnecessary, a little pretentious, and out of place) is in standard case. I think that adds to the amateurishness that was mentioned.

The graphics are okay -- I assume this is some kind of techno-thriller because that's how it looks with the matrix-y code, in which case it works, with the obvious caveat that this image needs to marry up with the theme of the story. I do find the crosshair motif a little cliché at this point, but if you're going for something that looks very genre-y it works okay. Minimalist colors are fine. The blue is good. The simplicity is fairly inoffensive without being especially enticing.

Biggest issue for me is the text. In my opinion, the title and your name should fill or mostly fill that black space. That's the only good way to do it, unless you want to go for some kind of texture (but then it's not going to be 'minimalist') I know you're going for a simple, clean look and all, but the graphic isn't strong enough to make the cover seem 'full' here and I think filling that gap will still achieve the same goal. Try a stronger font, make it at least a little larger and bolder, and I think it'll be much better.

[Olly Buckle]

In my opinion, the title and your name should fill or mostly fill that black space. That's the only good way to do it, unless you want to go for some kind of texture (but then it's not going to be 'minimalist') I know you're going for a simple, clean look and all, but the graphic isn't strong enough to make the cover seem 'full' here and I think filling that gap will still achieve the same goal.

I see what lucky means, I would do it by adding "By" on a line between "A thriller" and the name.

[Eicca]

I changed “A Thriller” back to all caps just for the sake of experimentation and I think that works ok. Definitely still trying to figure out what to do with all the black space. The central graphic has to stay the way it is for one big reason: in thumbnail form or from a distance, it looks like an eye. Much more compelling if you’re scrolling through a website or spy it on a shelf.

Maybe I’ll try some additional subtle gradient on the black spaces. Perhaps if it fades back to deep blue at the top and bottom edge that would fill it out without taking away from the minimalism.