TE Book - Cover

[oochappan]

A very important issue to present in a most tempting way this book by a good cover.
A nice challenge for everyone with design ambitions to let their creative cells work making suggestive proposals that can be evaluated and selected here.
Who dares to take this challenge on ?
(a quote from a monk: "Create or die !")

[kinginexile]

All I can say is that if we choose or vote for one single shot, then, the idea of a community behind the book is missing on the most important introduction to the book to outsiders, its cover.
Is this a TE book or a photography book?.... is what I mean.
H

[green]

Just an idea.

Why don't we create a "photo mosaic"? We could take a picture of the earth globe and with the help of a photo mosaic software and using some of pictures from the book create a photo mosaic of the earth.

I did a quick test, it's not really well done, and the colour are not so great but this will gives an idea of what I have in mind. click here <a href="http://photogreen.net/images_old/photomosaic.jpg" target="_blank"><b>photomosaic</b></a>.

[kinginexile]

very good idea, IMO. I had mentionned having bands full of photographs springing out the earth, but design and me makes 2, I must admit...Hard enough to frame 3 people in the same shot nicely, for me.... :-)

[elihesamian]

hello Friends !

This is my first reply in this wonderful great project,with 4 Km replies!:)

I was in connect with Cesar.

Count me in for every matter,just becareful about my poor english!

But for <b> Cover </b> :

this is very very important for a book,and for a photography book more than the other books.
We must use a "professional designer" for the cover,I have some great friends who works in this motif.
in our friendly world(my friends and I),they can design a cover for us,without any money and it will be a gift by one of them,but we will printed his name as cover's designer.

They will work(at least one of them),and will create a few pre design.

I will contact them as soon as possible,but some idea :

- must be simple (not very busy,and full of elements)

Material:

* TE logo(with its colors)

* "Learning about the world through photography"

* a few shots :at least 4 and max 8(will faded to others,small,big,...with some effect which Designer will suggest)

*...(You can say another..)

-------

Who will approve the final cover? a person or a group?

I'm at your service my friends :)

cheers!
Mohammad

[elihesamian]

...


what is the final title of the book?!

...

[kikvel]

Mohammad

Very nice contribution!
The title would be chosen later on, when themes are defined. There is no need to do it now, but we should start brainstorming already...

The picture of the cover to me should be "colorful", and mainly a portrait.
many thanks for your support.

K.

[oochappan]

Coclusion so far
Herve as a point nicely translate by Romain
Mohammad has a point by 4 photos supported by Cesar towards portraits

maybe a nice combination, a slight faded opacity B&W sober background where 4 photos jump out not necessairly portraits although a portrait is always a good eyepuller especially of children in the world that could charm everybody

chosing can be done with some practical examples to be discussed and to be develloped as the editor himself as maybe also a word to say in this, so chosing issue will grow with this thread by all suggestive propositions finding the most democratic manner to do so, all examples are welcome from TE members or pro's, sure we will enjoy to see how this devellop.

let's be practically, show some examples, all are invited ... let's have fun

[elihesamian]

...
Ok!

the basic cover of the book can be prepare,without shots on it,a basic draw,but not just "a" shot,could be a few shots...anyway,my mean is basic stracture of the cover,it can take the time,we must start,in paralel with another subjects for the book.

Please answer me friends:

Who are "Approval team" for : 1-shots 2-design of pages 3-cover 4-...

????
:)

Best Wishes
Mohammad

[oochappan]

No "Approval team" yet, it will grow out of the members who realy are active and skillful for the book, for now this honour goes to Cesar as he started the idea, real cooperaters will profile themself by their acivity, no ?

[kikvel]

We have to talk regarding this issue.

K.

[oochappan]

All members that are interested in this project may they be requested to add the following link at the end of their note of their posts of photos ?

&lt;a href="http://www.trekearth.com/themes.php?thid=3036">TE Book 2005 - Own Photos&lt;/a>
&lt;a href="http://www.trekearth.com/themes.php?thid=3037">TE Book 2005 - Other Members Photos&lt;/a>

Thanks

[elihesamian]

...this honour goes to Cesar as he started the idea....

No doubt :)

He is fixed,First one!

cheers!

[Porteplume]

* And especially Romain's posting, I'd rather like a title like: "Mosaïc" - Maybe in combination with Earth - World - Colour etc... - [I'm not sure the right spelling]

** Can we also make suggestions about quotes?

Viviane

PS: The first idea of separate thread seemed handy, but now it's very difficult to read everything without missing something as we are not aware of every new posting...

[kikvel]

please feel free to suggest what you think!

K.
There is a web page with a weekly summary kindly prepared by Jack. This will include an update every Monday.

[Porteplume]

Oops! I didn't see that single tree through the huge forest... ;o)

Thank you a lot Cesar, I'll check Jack's Web Page.

Amicalement - Viviane

[erdna]

May I have more explanation on what "Own Photos" means and "Other Members Photos" means?

Andre'

[kikvel]

Own photos my dear Andre is a theme for you to add your own pics proposed for the book.

Other member photos is a theme for you to add pictures that you propose for the book but that belong to other photographer.

K.

[RGatward]

This seems like the best idea to me, of all teh ones I've seen. Certainly one shot would undermine the idea.

[mlopes]

this is really a cool ideia, not new but cool.

Just a problem imo, the photos of the musaic will be sooooo small that no one will understand it.

Mario

[elihesamian]

The "photomosaic" is used usualy for big works with big scale,at least for poster like for a movie,maybe you You have seen "The Truman Show" movie,the poster of the movie was in this way/style,and I love<a href="http://www.moviegoods.com/movie_product.asp?sku=221126&master%5Fmovie%5Fid=10811"> this poster</a>,too!

But,for a cover of a book,using a lot of mini pictures with a title,TE logo,...with notice to scale and size of a book,will make an eye confusing for viewer at first time that they see the book.

Most of designers don't use photomosaic for a book usually.

cheers!

[kikvel]

We will prepare a list of all the options and we see later on a mechanism to choose the cover

K.

[sandip]

i have a suggestion on making the cover here..

why dont we make a collage of some of the photographs which will be used inside of the book ? we can first print some of the photos which can be treated as a cover page and then we can tear( only a single print )them in an artistic way ( may be hand-torn ,a non-geometrical shape )and put together different photos.. and then compose it with a bigger resolution camera and then print them out as a single composition..

I dont know wheather i could make it a sense.. just have a look <a href="http://www.treklens.com/gallery/North_America/United_States/photo41669.htm"> here </a> to get a better idea..i just dont say this is the correct one what im trying to say here.. but an idea though.. still this has got a geometrical shapes which i want to diminish totally rather introducing a non-geomatrical pattern by tearing out the photos and assemble together..

Suggestions ??

[sandip]

extension to my earlier post..
on the top of it.. The name of the book can be written.. my preference of font is BOOK ANTIQUA..even it can be written vertically.. strating from the bottom of the right corner of the book and goes upto the top right corner..

and at the bottom horizontally the theme of the site.. " learning world ..."..

im getting so excited for this project now.. Henk has just told me this.. i generally dont see this forum often..but reading all the threads im stading up from my chairs..

[oochappan]

Thanx Sandip, good suggestion, anyone who is tempted to create a layout for the cover can post it to TL and put a link here, that would be nice.

[Luan]

Hello Henk,

should we add these 2 links in our Intro Page ?

Regards
Luan

[sandip]

I have uploaded a cover page in <a href="http://www.treklens.com/gallery/photo55922.htm"> Treklens </a>.

Your sugesstions are welcome.

[elihesamian]

Plesae see this plan for<a href="http://www.treklens.com/gallery/photo56585.htm"> cover</a> in Treklens.

Suggestions please:)

Best Regards
M

[oochappan]

one more draft for the cover of TE Book to see on <a href="http://www.treklens.com/gallery/photo56628.htm">Treklens</a>

[PixelTerror]

All 3 creations look great, I must confess I prefer Henk's as it puts focus on the people behind, the photos can be found inside the book so maybe there's no need to have them again outside.
But great work, congrats to all 3 of you :-)

[Luan]

Hello,

this is my creation for the TE Cover Book, you can see it <a href="http://www.treklens.com/gallery/Europe/France/photo56730.htm">here</a>

Regards
Luan

[elihesamian]

Please see it another <a href="http://www.treklens.com/gallery/photo56806.htm">here</a>.

cheers
Mohammad

[cgrindahl]

You guys are simply having too much fun... so I decided to play along and throw together another version. Clearly I have too much time on my hands! ;-)

<a href="http://www.treklens.com/gallery/photo56877.htm">HERE IT IS!</a>

[kikvel]

wow, many covers already, hard to decide!

K.

[cgrindahl]

On the suggestion of a person who commented on the first version I posted at TL, I added a slightly modified TE logo. You can check out this version <a href="http://www.treklens.com/gallery/North_America/United_States/photo56967.htm">HERE.</a>

The black bands are not part of the cover as proposed.

[oochappan]

Another concept proposed see <a href="http://www.treklens.com/themes.php?thid=729">theme</a>

[cgrindahl]

Yes, indeed, another concept. Ideas seem to be swirling in the air. I've posted another version as well. You can check it <a href="http://www.treklens.com/gallery/photo57162.htm">HERE.</a>

[cgrindahl]

I feel as though I'm talking to myself... Where is everybody?????

I've posted one further book cover design at TrekLens. You can see it <a href="http://www.treklens.com/gallery/North_America/United_States/photo57440.htm">HERE!</a>

Comments welcome, though these are all works in progress, grist for the mill for this entire process.

[Furachan]

It is indeed tempting to take the "collage" approach, (judging by early drafts) giving a taste (in miniature) of all the goodies that are inside. But I would take a different approach - select just one , absolutely stunning picture, that all participants can agree on, and highlight it. The message: this is a high quality publication and there's plenty more like it inside... What do others think?
Regards, Francis

[cgrindahl]

It seems to me we're in a period of ferment where ideas are being considered but a decision hasn't been made as to whom exactly this book is targeted, a general audience or for the TrekEarth community itself. I've thought of the yearbooks that were published each year when I was a high school student. Each book chronicled events for this particular set of students. I received three, one for each year of senior high school. When I read about folks putting a date on the book, it seems closer to that model. Folks are talking about printing a thousand copies. Such a limited production run of books would hardly permit distribution beyond the community. I doubt we can find a publisher who would bear the costs of a major production aimed at the general public. IF this effort is targeted for the community, it seems we would wish to offer the best the community has to offer and as much of it as possible, so the largest number of members can see their work in print. I believe this latter goal would be served with a cover that is a montage of photos rather than a single photo, no matter how fine it is.

These are some random thoughts on the matter Francis. Perhaps to further the discussion you would like to create a cover demonstrating what you have in mind. As they say, a "picture is worth a thousand words." ;-)

I'd love to see more conversation on this important topic, but so far the members have been otherwise occupied...

[Furachan]

I'm not much of a "designer", Curtis, you know, it's all I can do to keep my 20D steady when I pray to the Gods for a lucky shot...:)
Seriously my point is this: think back to the great Nat Geo compilations, they don't go in for a collage but select one powerful image that will stand for the rest. It is therefore a very simple, single-minded design, nothing fancy but THAT one image will speak volumes. And selecting it through a democratic "vote-in" process should be huge fun, don't you think?
I'm just keen to propose this drastically different alternative to the colage approach - I think it looks more "pro" somehow, more serious, but hey, what do I know...?

[cgrindahl]

To give folks a clearer sense of the most recent cover design I submitted, I added closeups of both the Front and Back. <a href="http://www.treklens.com/workshops/58176/">HERE</a> is a link to the workshops.

Check the Front and Back options, the last two on the page and mark at the top for a "side-by-side" comparison. When the new window opens you'll see the two pages next to one another, giving you a view that is 1600 pixels wide and a bit less that 800 pixels high. This provides quite a bit more detail than the version that may otherwise be posted.

As I've said before, the original of this design is 7600x3600 pixels, so there is even more detail than is represented in these workshops. This image is suitable for printing, in other words.

Enjoy the view!

[Furachan]

That's beautiful work, Curtis, and enormous amount of thought and effort has gone into it. I like the Mandala pattern quite a bit, and the balck background.

I still think a combination design is possible, where the front cver would show a single, jaw dropingly remarkable picture (possibly a portrait), with the back cover showing a koleidoscope of images, including a smaler version of the ne on the front. Impact-wise and focus-wise that might work very well. Of course not being any kind of designer, these are just words...

Thanks for the fine design and all the work that's gone into it.
Cheers, Francis

[torben]

I've followed this interesting book project a bit from the side-lines with too much other stuff to do to make a contribution.
Now I have however found time to do a <a href="http://www.treklens.com/gallery/Europe/Denmark/photo59025.htm">proposal</a> for the book cover, the back of the cover is shown in the <a href="http://www.treklens.com/workshops/59025/photo8956.htm">workshop</a>.

The intention was to make a clean design with space and "air" in the composition. The theme is the same as a some of the other proposals, thumbnail photos spread across the world. I choso to work with a map instead of a globe because I think the globe tends to look crammed while I wanted air.

The map is draw as a vector path in Illustrator. The path is used as a clipping path for the collage of photos beneath. The rest of the element are made in InDesign. So basically the file is ready for print.
The selection of photos is of course up for discussion, I tried to select photos from the corresponding geographical areas, whic means that some very photographed places gets very little space, while places with few photographs gets a lot of space in the composition.

I would like a better text on the back, that is an area that definitely needs more work.

[SophieL]

It's a very neat idea and probably my favorite so far (even though I'm really impressed with the quality of all the works shown by other people). Well done!

Just one thing: why not use the TE motto on the cover page ("Learning about the world through photography") instead of the sentence you use?

(sorry, I should take the time to register on TL and make my critiques directly there).

[torben]

Thank you for your comments. In a way it's a little strange to have the discussions about the TE book on the TL site, but that is obviously how it went.

For this cover I felt the TE motto was a little too long and "heavy", I wanted something shorter and snappier, the overall I tried to achieve was something light, crisp and airy.

I the meantime I have posted another design that has a slighty heavier feel with just a whiff of olde-world to it. I used the TE motto for that one, I felt it fitted better there.

[sandip]

Hi Francis... respecting your idea.. i did this.. Have a <a href="http://www.treklens.com/gallery/photo59555.htm" target="_blank">look...</a>

[sandip]

by the way we got 44 variety of covers...
i just added another <a href="http://www.treklens.com/gallery/photo62062.htm" target="_blank"> one </a>

[ilouy]

I tried one for U. Trying to respect the TE Website colors, identity. Keep "sobrity" in mind also. In my project, pictures are not "chosen"... this is just for exemple. Text on the backcover is also not real...
Comments are welcome.

Go to : <a href="http://www.louy.ch/TE-Book-cover_Ilouy.jpg" target="blank">TE Book cover proposition</a>

Isabelle

[jlm]

Please consider usinge a proffesional designer for the cover. I've been browsing some of the suggestions for the cover and they are quite nice, but most of them miss the point of the book. The book is about pictures from the world and not about Photoshop filtereffects.

So suggestion:
Focus on the images and not so much on Photoshop filters.
Check the design of other photobookcovers <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/2024/1/102-3054449-5672919?rank=-titlerank">at amazon</a> for example.