Under Cover 2

I met up with Sade Adeniran in London this year when summer was fading into autumn. She bubbled into The Odeon Cinemas at Sheperds Bush with two copies of her book-Imagine This. One copy to be reviewed in True Love West Africa where I work, and the other for my reading pleasure. Imagine This was a pleasure at first sight. A cleverly angled painting floating in a sea of white clear space. The self published author created the concept for her book cover with the help pf Graphic Designer- Olamide Adetula. Imagine This enjoys rave reviews in London, and Sade is soon to sign a far more rewarding deal with one of England's top publishers.

Of the cover art she says: "the artists' name is Jonathan Gladding and he's an American working in St Lucia. I've know Jonathan since my University days in the States and saw his work when I went to St Lucia in 2001. I asked him if I could use it for my book cover and he agreed."

Below is a link to Jonathan Gladding's website- http://www.jagartist.com/index.html."

Happy Day!

"More commonly, savvy publishers leave it to the designers. In the 1920s and 1930s, publishers regularly used fine artists, such as Ben Nicholson, to provide covers, and artists were only too happy for the steady income. "- Tom Dyckhoff.

A little birdie told me that a leading publisher in Nigeria will be consulting one of the graphics designers featuted on 2020visionng for their book covers. They're certainly the savvy ones.

Stay tuned for details of that transaction.

Under Cover...

...lies a brilliant novel or not. Whilst combing through the Internet for statistics on book sales and their relations to book cover designs, I found a brilliant piece by Tom Dyckhoff for the Guardian here-http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/history/story/0,6000,552107,00.html. After I read this article I abandoned my search as Tom more than sums up the whole point of my post. His article also chronicles the journey of book cover designs since the 20s till now, and how these designs have changed over the past eight decades.
I know for sure I am guilty of impulse buying in book stores. I remember last year I spent 40pounds on a fashion book I didn't need but found irresistably appealing and suffered for two weeks living on spaghetti and bread sticks. Many of us buy books we have never heard of based on the colours, textures, and words on the cover design. I've asked five people to share this experience starting with dear friend and fellow blogger the notorious Jeremy Weate of http://www.naijablog.blogspot.com/.




“The Amado - has a distinctive cartoonesque cover - a woman with large brown eyes and lips carrying manicured roses. She looks like a brazilian diva leaving the stage to thunderous applause. Who was I to resist buying it?”

“The Alsanea - has a completely distinctive design - each letter is made up of embossed blips that are a little like sequins. They catch the light in an interesting and subtle way. The title, Girls of Riyadh, is semi-concealed by the general patterns on the cover - a nice metaphor for the concealed lives the characters in the novel have. Although the book was in an obscure corner of Heathrow's Borders book shop, and I was tired, it still caught my eye like a jewel shining in a heap of rubbish.”

The good Logo.

The logo is a critical aspect of a brand and according to brand experts; the five key elements of a good brand are position, promise, personality, story and associations. Interlocking Cs, the star in the circle, the bitten multicolored apple... Without an explanation for these logos, would we know to interprete Chanel's logo as a clothing line, Mercedes's logo as a luxury car manufacturing company or Apple as a software company? Do you we understand these logos by interpretation or by association? Before I direct your attention to the logo below, let me confess at once that I designed it about three years ago for one of my own companies. I was very excited about it at the time but now I look at it and doubt that it translates the company's personality. So now I ask you, what does this company logo bring to mind?