Help designing a cover for my DDR Book

also, maybe a pic without you taking the pic , and mabe a little smaller to so it doesnt cut off the pad

Okay, it is looking really good. I see there is still a grammatical error on the back cover (2nd line from the top; "surrounding a the unique") but I really like the divider between the two sections now. I just need a better photo of me...if such a thing exists

EDIT>

Okay I'm looking for some of my older photos. I might be able to use my head clipped from this picture with the Mayor of Wako-city. Actually, I'll just link the whole picture becuase I'm not sure what dimensions I might need to use.

Full size here

If you are really brave you can try to clip parts of the full sized image of some of my old wedding portraits (not the actual ceremony which was Western; I have photos of me in a white suit if that is better; just follow the gallery links):
https://picasaweb.google.com/113185684285955205809/WeddingPortraitPhotos#



Also, I took some more pics of an older style stage in Kasai today and I uploaded them to my facebook gallery in the slight chance you want different shots/angles for whatever reason.

I can't comment on how well the bleed works at the moment but I think everything should fit into place. In the worst case I may ask for some kind of stretch or fade pattern around the edges but we can deal with that if the need arises.

I did get this warning when I uploaded your latest image (large one) to make a sample. I'm guessing it wants a super-duper-huge version of that image. The very first one you posted was massive and I believe that was 288DPI which was perfectly fine:


EDIT> Here is what the preview looks like right now:

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Ah ok, looking better each time. Yea the first image was CMYK in 300dpi but all subsequent images are much less for posting purposes. I'm making the adjustments right now and I'll post it soon.

EDIT: Ok here we go. I couldn't find the newer DDR panel pictures you were referring to so I couldn't update that part. Hopefully the Bleed won't cut off anything much anymore.

*click for full size*

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maybe a single white border around the picture too

Ah, the new DDR stage photos? Try this link:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150794596049910.423925.789964909&type=3&l=49147fca2d

(It is in the "Random DDR Book Cover Ideas" photo gallery on my facebook...account)

I will try to head to Odaiba Leisure Land this Friday too, and there is both an older and newer cabinet there I can use for more photo shoots if need be..


One thing I have noticed 3 times now is the text on the back cover still has that one glaring issue on the 2nd line. It mistakenly says

"surrounding a the unique series of music games known as"

instead of the more correct:

"surrounding the unique series of music games known as"


It looks really nice and I'll do a mockup in cover creator to see how much of anything gets cut off around the edges:

Edit>

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That's wonderful. Looks much better.

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Made the changes and corrections. Let me know how it turns out.

*click for full size*

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Oh, that's beautiful. When I get home I'd like to run a full sized version through Amazon and generate a proof copy of the whole book. Do you have a link to a stupefyingly hi-res version of that? (300dpi or anything close like the one you did with an earlier draft) Dropbox or media fire are fine too if you want to share it that way. If Gmail can send and receive it, that's fine too.

I'm fixing up some of the capitalization and punctuation inconsistencies but even if it isn't 100% perfect I'd still like to order a proof copy since it will take a while for them to ship it to me.

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Yea sure, no problem.

Here is the full CMYK 300 file.
COUNTING COMBOS full resolution

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I still think the red glow on the lower pad looks out of place. Other than some small nitpicks (is your mouth open?), it seems okay.

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Um, I don't see any red glow. Like, at all.

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I think he means the red lighting. I can change that if necessary.

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I can't see any of those things you mention.

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Yeah, my wording choices are pretty horrible.

Anyways, the red lighting doesn't match the blue feel of the central image. The top pad can get away with it due to the coloring of "Counting". And as another nitpick, I just noticed that the up arrow matches with "Counting" but the down arrow doesn't match "Combos". Maybe making the down arrow an 8th note instead?

Sorry if I'm being to critical.

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It's fine. Criticism is a big part of my life since I'm a designer so you don't have to be sorry it's alright. I actually didn't make the book's logo though so that would be up to seishinbyou.

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<opinions>

Yeah, I think you do.

I suppose this book is meant for casual readers that I think doesn't really care about these things. Heck, I don't think that they even know what an "8th arrow" is. Unless the front page is going to be appraised or something then it doesn't really matter. What matters most at this time is the content of the book. Personally I think the cover is good as is.

</opinions>

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well I was going for the entire rainbow of the ddr arrow spectrum. where the top text is a yellow/gold, bottom is a blue purple, and the arrows are orange/pink, cyan/green. It didnt quite turn out that way, I can change it if you want)
Also, The 'counting' is also supposed to look somewhat like a gold coin

I also feel like maybe tilting the arrows or having them at some angle, they feel a little flat, what do you guys think?

Maybe having them at an angle similar to the new global DDR logo would look better maybe?



I can always try that. I can remove the boxes in this logo and just leave those arrows or replace these four new arrow types with the classic ones.

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I like the idea of a subtle color on the back cover. The new DDR logo-esque style on the back looks nice, though remember that there could be a potential problem with copyright on the image of the logo if it is taken directly from the official logo. If it is just an "impression" of the real thing, I don't think that is a problem, though.

I wouldn't mind the arrow pattern on the back colored in a similar fashion, though I think it should be very dark/subtle (very, very subtle color; the logo should draw almost no attention to itself beyond it being a vague shape). Books in general are very simple in terms of design and the back cover is just usually for a quick synopsis, not an art exhibition. If this were a video game box and not a book, I'd push for making the back cover more flashy, however.

Okay, I'll try submitting the 300dpi image you posted earlier today along with a hi-res PDF of the inside contents and see if Amazon allows that for publishing. If they say yes, I can order a proof copy for myself in the meantime. If you want to redo the back logo like that, I can slip in the change while they are OKing the whole of the book contents (inside). Since it will take a couple weeks for any order I make to get to my house (possibly earlier since this isn't a busy season like Xmas), and we can still tweak the design in the meantime.

I actually don't mind the red tinge that the lower stage has since I quite like the subtle impression the red and blue have against the black *despite* the yokohama skyline being more blueish.

And I'm actually wondering if the arrows next to the main logo are even necessary at all at this point since there are two stages on the front cover and another silhouette on the back.

EDIT> Also, if anything, I am probably the most at risk legally with those arrow images left of the main logo; I'll think about removing those; the cover probably still looks fine without them.

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hmm, i could always make some kind of artistic representation of them. or better yet, you could maybe put the dancer (remade of course) from all the ddr pads either on the front or the back