Book Cover: Star Trek - The Reliant

[Tiberius Jim]

Hey guys, I just thought I'd put this out there as I am finalizing it for my graphic design portfolio. I'll be graduating some time next year and am getting my professional works all put together. Anyway, I knew I had to work in my Star Trek work somehow into it, so I made up a story that would fit my NX-Class era Miranda class drawing I did a few years ago, and created a fictional fictional novel around it. The basic premise is that Trip really didn't die, and he's been given his own command in the form of The Reliant. The idea is that the ship is continuously refit over time to become the Reliant we see in TWOK...not very probably but I thought it would make a cool series of novels, following the ship over the various eras until the last book ends with its destruction in the movie. Anyway, thats a thread for the Fan Fiction thread to see if anyone wants to write it. As of now the "author" is simply my best friend's name...I have worked into my portfolio names of those close to me.

Well, without further ado, here's the first pics I've snapped of it. I'm doing official product shots for the portfolio tomorrow so expect some higher quality pics soon. Also, I've included the flat.

 

[Cronos6939]

Ok, my response isn't going to be what you were probably hoping for, but it ought to be of some help you anyway...

As a graphic desinger myself, I wouldn't include this in my professional portfolio, unless you're looking for work as a cover illustrator. Even then, I'd be a little wary. It's not a bad concept, but the sketch of the ship doesn't meld with the photo of the planet. It feels like two separate images.

The shadow "Fire and Ice" isn't centered with the white of the same. You also need to revisit your back cover text. The first sentence doesn't make sense, there's a misspelling, and Reliant should be italicized in both paragraphs.

If you still want to include it, I'd rework it. Redraw the images in Illustrator (as I've found potential employers care more about software proficiency than about what I can do with a pencil). Maybe on the back you have a burning sun instead of the frozen world again. Hope that helps. Good luck with your coming job search.

 

[Tiberius Jim]

Well, I really appreciate the corrections because I somehow didn't catch those errors the first time around., some of which are rather embarassing...anyway here's the changes I've made.

I fixed the centering problem on the front, realized I omitted a section of text from the back's first paragraph and changed the planet on the back to the "fire planet" which I agree looks a lot more interesting than the same planet from the front duplicated.

As far as the illustration on the front thats where I have to disagree. This entry in my portfolio is to show that I have traditional skills as well as proficiency with software and that's something my instructors have been encouraging. Anyway, let me know what you think of the changes.

 

[Maurice]

The title's not centered between the upper and lower text blocks on the back cover, which looks bad.

The planet wrapping around from the back cover to the spin goes right under the glowy text, which makes it unnecessarily difficult to read.

The cover just doesn't look balanced because of all the redundant large FIRE & ICE's that throw the compositon off. If you keep them, I'd suggest pushing the ship and the planet up slightly to compensate.

Also, too much text. I'd lose THE RELIANT entirely.

I'm surprised you actually bothered to write a description for the back cover instead of the usual nonsense wording used on layouts.

 

[Tiberius Jim]

The title's not centered between the upper and lower text blocks on the back cover, which looks bad.

Actually, its all centered and lined up:

The planet wrapping around from the back cover to the spin goes right under the glowy text, which makes it unnecessarily difficult to read.

Hmm, I'm not sure I agree. On both the digital file and the print its perfectly easy to read to me.

The cover just doesn't look balanced because of all the redundant large FIRE & ICE's that throw the compositon off. If you keep them, I'd suggest pushing the ship and the planet up slightly to compensate.

I lowered the opacity of the larger title and agree that it helps.

Also, too much text. I'd lose THE RELIANT entirely.

Well I can't really do that...The Reliant is the title of the series, Fire and Ice is the title of the specific book. Look at it as an episode title. I used the Star Trek New Earth series as a guide.

I'm surprised you actually bothered to write a description for the back cover instead of the usual nonsense wording used on layouts.

Heh, yeah I knew this would be at high enough resolution to be read...plus I've always wanted to write my own fan fic so I thought this would be a good jumping off point, albeit a little bit backwards.

BTW I did change the proportion of the ship and planet in relation to the rest of the cover.

 

[SonicRanger]

What about just "RELIANT" instead of "THE RELIANT"? Adding "the" doesn't fit the established scheme: Voyager, Challenger, Enterprise, etc. It just reads awkwardly to me. Maybe then you can do something more graphically interesting with "RELIANT" than just big bold white letters.

Oh, and the reason that the planet and ship look like they come from different images is that the strong shadow on the planet doesn't match the bright vessel. The planet's rings should have a shadow on them too.

 

[lonewriter]

It has potential. On the front cover, Fire & Ice look to big. I'd use a differant font on them and I have to agree about the ship not matching the planet. It just doesn't look right to me. I also agree that it would work better as Star Trek Reliant and drop "the" totally. Good job so far.

 

[Tiberius Jim]

Well, in TWOK the Reliant is refered to as both "the Reliant" and "Reliant" so either one works. And its more or less always been "the Enterprise" so I don't know how "the Reliant" doesnt fit. I resized the "Fire & Ice" to line up with the "Reliant" on the cover. I'll see about working with the shadows on the ship and the planet to make it more cohesive.

 

[BolianAuthor]

Very nice... I like how you did the ISBN panel.

 

[SonicRanger]

Well, in TWOK the Reliant is refered to as both "the Reliant" and "Reliant" so either one works. And its more or less always been "the Enterprise" so I don't know how "the Reliant" doesnt fit...

It doesn't fit with the other series: Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise.

And TWOK constantly mentions "Reliant" rather than "the Reliant" -- a few examples:

KYLE
Captain Terrell. Captain Terrell... This is Reliant; please respond.​

CHEKOV
... come in, please. This is Reliant calling Regula I. Repeat. This is USS Reliant --​

CAROL
This is completely improper, Commander Chekov. I have no intention of allowing Reliant or any other unauthorized personnel access to our work or materials.

CHEKOV
(pauses; listens)
I'm sorry you feel that way, Doctor. Admiral Kirk's orders are confirmed. Please prepare to deliver Genesis to us upon our arrival. Reliant out.​

DAVID
Mistake? We're all alone here. They waited until everyone was on shift-leave to do this. Reliant is supposed to be at our disposal, not vice-versa.​

SAAVIK'S VOICE
It's one of ours, Admiral... It's Reliant.​

KIRK
Chekov's on Reliant, isn't he?​

And so on...

 

[Tiberius Jim]

KIRK
Where is the crew of the Reliant?

I know its only one quote, but it shows the movie isn't entirely consistent. I've always said it as "The Reliant" so that's what I used for the book.

Edit: Okay, I changed up the font, and revamped the color of the ship, added some shadows and highlights and bumped up the glowy bits. I agree that the ship looks out of place after doing these changes.

 

[Masao]

1. The second paragraph has an initial indent but the first paragraph does not.
2. You have four different fonts on the cover (and on the spine). Is that too many?
3. I agree with the others that you should omit "the" before "Reliant"

 

[SonicRanger]

I almost forgot -- there are Star Trek: Excelsior and Star Trek: Titan books too.

 

[Technobuilder]

I'm not a graphic designer or anything, but in the humble opinion of one who would be looking to this as a product on the shelf, I'll say two things.

1.) I don't like the FIRE & ICE shadow that is behind the main subtitle with the Red Hue for FIRE and the Blue Hue for ICE. It seems redundant as well as BIG and honestly if you keep it, take note that I'm not a fan of the ampersand being so close to the "I" in ICE either. Just do a version without it and see what it looks like.

I do Have to say that the Red & Blue Hues on the Main Subtitle and I think they were a good call.

2.) As a Star Trek fan who has had many discussions in Bookstores about things that others (read as not geeks) would find pointless, I'd say kill the preceding "The" before Reliant as well, as it's more informal than anything else. It'll work with some names (Reliant included) of course, but not all of them.

Just my $0.02

 

[Maurice]

The title's not centered between the upper and lower text blocks on the back cover, which looks bad.

Actually, its all centered and lined up:

It wasn't on the version in the message I was commenting on: http://www.trekbbs.com/showpost.php?p=1720646&postcount=3

I notice that the streaks from the nacelles don't match the perspective on said nacelles.

In general, the fewer the fonts, the better. I'm looking at a random sample of books on the bookcase next to my desk and not one of them uses more than three font families. Your image uses a serifed font just for the Author's name, while everything else is san serif. It's an awkward choice, especially since most covers don't dedicate a separate typeface to an author's name.

 

[Tiberius Jim]

Alrighty, so I took a lot of these suggestions to heart...and finally caved and got rid of the "the" :-p

I'll let it speak for itself.

 

[Michael]

I think it looks great!

 

[SonicRanger]

Better, better...

Further comments/suggestions:

"Reliant" isn't centered on the front.

Nacelle trail perspective doesn't match the nacelles.

Now the front image needs to be lowered a bit.

I like that you've used fewer fonts, but two things. Is the "Star Trek" font you've used consistent with Pocket's font for this era? They have different fonts for different time periods, so this should match the ENT books. Also, I still wish something more interesting could be done with "Reliant" -- kind of like the Titan books, which have a really unique look to their logo.

 

[Tiberius Jim]

Okay, I'm getting embarrassed about nopt catching these alignment issues. I thought I had it lined up but apparently there was a space within the text box that was moving the text over. Anyway, here's yet another update.

As for the "Star Trek" font, while there is a different font used for the Enterprise era books, this is intended to be a series that spans multiple eras and I don't think it would make sense to change the font of the title for each book.

 

[Technobuilder]

If you're series is going to span multiple eras, then I agree about the "Star Trek" font being used.

Very nice work. I'd buy that.