The Peat-Free Diet Cover

An ebook version of The Peat-Free Diet is still a little way off, but for the past couple of days I have been working up some possible covers. I have four current candidates, and I am showing them here so that you can comment and/ or pick a favourite. I have shown them small, because ebook covers have to work when small, but click on each image to load a larger version.

Option 1: Limp
This was my first design, and although I love it aesthetically my mum hates the ‘limp’ vegetables and since limp plant growth is not what you get on the peat-free diet, this cover probably doesn’t work. They’re being composted, by the way, that’s the point of this image.

Option 2: Glow
My mum suggested nice, healthy vegetables might be in order – but the PFD is about gardening generally, so this cover showcases a stunning, healthy (and edible) flower. I also appear to have generated my own optical illusion, since the bands at the top and the bottom are exactly the same colour, but don’t look like they are.

Option 3: Lush
This is another cover all about lush, healthy and peat-free growth (and another stealthy edible :) I was aiming for fuchsia with the band colour (they’re all colours taken from the image) but may have achieved eye-watering purple instead.

Option 4: Vital
This one came about while I was wondering if the book’s title implies some kind of deprivation. I thought “celebrity diets are always popular” and so I put myself on the cover (this is firmly tongue-in-cheek, so no comments telling me to get over myself!). The first three photos are mine, but Pete took this one.

Would any of these cause you to stop and find out more about the book? Do you have a favourite? Am I way off the mark? Feel free to post constructive criticism in the comments, and let me know if your choice would be Option 4: None of the above.

Comment

Catherine wrote:

I love the photo on option 3, although I think you may be right about the eye-watering fuchsia bands – could you tone it down by adding a bit of the beautiful pale green?

...on Mon, Jun 11 '12 (348 days ago)

Bugs wrote:

I think I’d be most likely to be intrigued/attracted by the thumbnail of the calendula (maybe you could use the lighter orangey-yellow for the text boxes to avoid the optical illusion?) but I like the principle of the first composty picture. Do you have/can you get a photo that includes some beautiful rich looking home made compost; possibly even a courgette in flower or any type of squash fruiting on compost? That might be big and bright enough to catch the eye in a thumbnail but also illustrates the topic when you look at the close-up? If I had one I’d offer it but I’ve never actually done the compost heap thing. Comfrey plants are also quite pretty I think but might seem a bit too narrow in subject.

...on Mon, Jun 11 '12 (348 days ago)

Alex wrote:

Hmm. Well, I hate the typeface, and you really don’t need initial caps for the subheading (or the main title, come to that). I guess one of the problems I have with the images is that they don’t really ‘say’ anything, and they look a bit like stock photos. I suppose, really, that I’d like to see something more conceptual – the image should help to answer the question ‘why should we care’? Sorry if this sounds negative, but I’m a graphic designer! You’re going to be saying some pretty interesting and important things, and your cover should reflect that! Oh, I should say that the calendula is my favourite of all those.

...on Mon, Jun 11 '12 (348 days ago)