Cover Design Contest

[1p0kerboy]

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....the first sentence could be construed as "There aren't any limit games with a dealer."


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Nit.

[img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[NickMPK]

Gonso submission's are probably the best poker book covers I have ever seen (at least among the ~40 books that I own). I implore 2+2 chooses them and not muck around with his fonts and spacing and such.

I actually like the "classic" 2+2 cover look, but the covers to their last couple books have been abominations.

[Al P]

I like the red and black. That book will definitely be easy to find on the bookshelf.

[Gonso]

Thanks for all of your compliments, I'm glad they're going over so well, but there's a lot of time left... by the time this is over you'll have been looking at these for a month. Anything can happen, and other entires will be coming along.

I'm settled on my basic layout, which is going to probably require me to re-render the cover one more time from scratch. This will allow me to place the title lower (but not too low), and address a couple of minor formatting issues.

I have a minor concern about alterations by the printing company if one of my designs were to be selected. Some of this will be nitty, but IMO you have to be nitty for these types of projects to be done right.

For example, having them place the photos isn't really necessary, I could place them perfectly in my final draft.Also, if the spine is slightly wider or thinner than one inch, the printer will be forced to stretch or splice out a little space which will create lines - these can be fixed somewhat in the right hands. However I have an "extra inch" of space width-wise and can slide the layers to compensate if done myself - all the way up to a 2-inch spine if needed, without surgery, so to speak.

I guess what I'm asking is, other than inserting the UPC an ISBN number, is there any reason the printers have to place or adjust anything? It's not about some "artistic integrity" issue or whatever, it's because I know that at the end of the process everything will be lined up and measured perfectly if I do it myself - literally to the pixel (I'm perfectionistic about some things). The graphic artist you happen to get at the printer may not be so thorough. Besides, it doesn't cost anything extra.

The other issue - do you guys have some kind of blurb for the back cover? A quote? This is something else that I could drop in myself rather than have a third party do it, and you could get a good look at it early on to see if it works.

[fraac]

I feel bad going so far OT in an impressive topic.

Dictionaries attempt to describe words which attempt to describe reality. As arguments by authority go (badly, I'm told), you can't pick a much worse authority than a dictionary. Even on their specialist subject of words, they're very much the class idiot. English has one overriding rule: if it looks (sounds) good, it's correct. All else is mutable.

As of my writing this, "Hold 'em" is inferior to "Hold'em", which will later be supplanted by "Holdem" then "holdem".

[myxomatosized]

i'm no graphic designer, but how about a closeup of sunglasses on a guys face and in the reflection you see a dealer and a table with cards and chips on it, etc

[MicroBob]

There's a new thread with the phrase 'holdem em' in the subject line.
I like this variation and would like to see this one become the new standard.

[NickMPK]

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i'm no graphic designer, but how about a closeup of sunglasses on a guys face and in the reflection you see a dealer and a table with cards and chips on it, etc

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The cover of my version of "Catching Poker Cheats" by Livingston is a variation on this...it only shows cards in the sunglasses and is not a realistic reflection though.

[Wolf359]

I like Gonso's submission, but aren't there copyright issues due to the King image, since it's not Gonso's own original artwork? Furthermore, even if the image is not copyrighted, it looks like this violates the contest rules:

In Mason's original post defining the contest, point #8 states:
"All submissions must be the original creative work of the submitter. The submitting creator also certifies that the materials submitted are their creation have never been registered as copyrights, or, if copyrighted that the creator is the original and current copyright owner. The submission of any public domain or clip art images is prohibited."

From what I can tell, there's some debate about the specifics of playing card copyrights, but most designs do appear to be copyrighted - I believe Wikipedia, for example, has had to remove all the modern high-res examples of playing card imagery from their "playing cards" entry due to copyright issues.

And as noted above, even any images that are public domain are clearly not acceptable for this contest according to Mason's contest definition.

[Gonso]

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I like Gonso's submission, but aren't there copyright issues due to the King image, since it's not Gonso's own original artwork? Furthermore, even if the image is not copyrighted, it looks like this violates the contest rules:

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From what I can tell, there's some debate about the specifics of playing card copyrights, but most designs do appear to be copyrighted

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Those particular designs of the face cards are very old, there are no copyrights on them, I don't know who could be debate that there are. The designs they're based on go back to medieval times.

On a deck of cards, there ARE elements that are typically protected, though. For example: the ace of spades or joker, card back design, brand name, sometimes even the finish texture. Obviously none of those apply here.

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any images that are public domain are clearly not acceptable for this contest according to Mason's contest definition.

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That is a fresh rendering (by me) and not a photocopy or photograph, so it is not public domain. (I do other hobby work with card design also to include a five-suited deck project). While the old designs themselves are not protected, any artist's renderings of them are, so in fact my work is protected and can't be photocopied and used by someone else now. Same wth the suits, since I rendered those also.