What Sticks

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Making Covers
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Making Covers

Picking The Mood

Lo Potter
Jul 22, 2021
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Making Covers
lopotterwrites.substack.com

You know that saying “don’t judge a book by its cover?” Everyone knows people are going to judge the book by its cover.

I’m proud to share my soon to be released project “Vi”

It’s a poetry book in Esperanto. Mi skribis ĝin kun mia amiko, Wladyslaw Wood. This book is specifically for the #conlang #Esperanto community. It’s a beautiful language with an incredible history. Please check it out.

Anyways! Covers! All of these poems share the unique feature that they are intended to be shared from a narrator to another person. That’s it. The genre varies greatly. This made picking a cover a little difficult. Poetry covers are all over the place when it comes to the industry standards (???). If you have a favorite, feel free to participate in the current Twitter thread you can find here.

Option 1 is a dark sky photo I post processed then made into a cover.

This one I think is the most flexible with the theme of the book (the glowing “Vi” on the utility wires) without implying much about the content other than a clear night sky.

Option 2 is a stock photo from Canva that I altered based on inspiration from 80s/90s grocery store book covers. Something about that big bold text.

This one I creates a sepia tone effect and may muddle the message. It does imply more of a diverse set of poems than a single genre.

Option 3 I think is my personal favorite because I was able to add the additional subheading and because it used a stock photo from Canva that implied an attempt to gaze through and understand something being observed.

While this one is my favorite, I do not think this one should be the cover of this poetry book because it is creepy af and would definitely make everyone think this was a book of stalker poetry. Like, was this book written by a pair of serial killers? You’ll never know because it’s in a language you don’t speak, but judging that book by that cover, you can only assume. Again, while it’s my favorite, I will bow to the whims of the universe and agree that the prevailing interpretation is too strong to allow this cover to move on.

Option 4 is one of my photographs from the medical wing of Alcatraz. This photograph, featured in ‘L’identité Politique’, would provide a nice continuity between my work.

The font is dramatic. It’s a peep hole into a prison cell (if I remember correctly). This photograph was so much fun to take. I love finding strange and unusual perspectives to examine places from. This is no exception. I would like to believe that this one isn’t too creepy, though I am concerned that it loses any reference to the theme.

Which covers are your favorites? Feel free to leave a comment!

My co-author and friend, Wladyslaw, will remain anonymous at this time. More details to come.

For Hope,

Lo

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