December Challenge - Ptrope

[Ptrope]

"Wow, what happened? This must be a hoax - Ptrope never has an entry for a challenge this early!"

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Nope! It's real! Obviously, I am a huge fan of cover art - I like the combination of both the illustrations and the design and layout challenges - and with magazine covers, there's also an editorial challenge: what are the best headlines and what is the best way to make them fit seamlessly with the image? When I get an idea in my head for a cover, I have to do it now.

And ... I also hope this can provide a little (tiny!) bit of inspiration for others to exercise their creative selves and make this a challenge to remember .

 

[Ptrope]

Another variant on a classic magazine, well-known to many Trek fans - OMNI was kind of like Penthouse without the pictures (since it was published by Bob Guccione, as well, not so surprising), but with a more scientific and social content; it had commentary, fiction, cutting edge science news and pretty impressive graphics and illustration between its covers.

 

[librarytrekker78]

Ptrope, both of these covers are awesome!

 

[The Lensman]

Wow! Fantastic covers Ptrope! And "OMNI"? that sure brings back some memories! I'd forgotten about that mag and now I'm wondering if it's still around in some form.

"Wow, what happened? This must be a hoax - Ptrope never has an entry for a challenge this early!"

Clearly I have slipped into the Mirror Universe where you don't wait until the last minute to surprise everyone with a stealth entry. I'm guessing you have a goatee?

I am a huge fan of cover art - I like the combination of both the illustrations and the design and layout challenges - and with magazine covers, there's also an editorial challenge: what are the best headlines and what is the best way to make them fit seamlessly with the image? When I get an idea in my head for a cover, I have to do it now.

LOL! Yeah, we're both huge fans of cover art and we both seem to have a knack for it. It's probably why I end up voting for your covers more often than not. I'm actually surprised that I'm pretty decent at doing book covers. Graphic design was never anything I had any particular interest in doing and I've yet to personally meet a graphic designer offline who wasn't an overly pretentious, anal retentive douche bag. (All the cool ones are online.)

But yeah, there is a certain fun to the whole cover thing isn't there? I think it's that it creates a sense of "wonder". You see some cool image, read some brief text and you get an idea of what the story is about, and until you read it, your mind fills in the blanks as it runs down the alleys of possibilities. It's a moment where your impression of what the story is takes hold of you and compels you to read it to find out if the story matches that brief moment of wonder and possibility.

Sometimes I've read books where the story didn't live up to the imaginative possibilities of the cover.

 

[Ptrope]

Finally got around to another cover for this month - something must've eaten me and replaced me with creature that continually spews out art instead of waiting and releasing it all in one gush. :O

This time, I wanted to do a muscle car magazine for the 23rd century, and "Car Craft" was a perfect starting point for the title.

 

[Kaiser]

the second and third one id read right away if i could

 

[Ensign Ro-]

All fantastic entries. :-)

 

[Klondike307]

Beautiful!

 

[Ptrope]

Sometimes I've read books where the story didn't live up to the imaginative possibilities of the cover.

And I've also read books where, with one cover, they failed to hold my interest, yet with another, became a favorite (Piper's The Cosmic Computer being the best example of this - the original cover had a rampaging robot that wasn't even in the story, and I couldn't get going, but when it was reprinted with a Michael Whelan cover, suddenly it was a whole new book! ).

the second and third one id read right away if i could

Not the first one, even 'just for the articles?'

 

[Kaiser]

Id read the first one last