When an author knows exactly what they want as their custom book cover design, this does make our job easier – but, in this case it created unforeseen issues regarding a reasonable and logical budget. We found that the scene was not cost effective with real people in uniform and acting out the requested scene for a photoshoot. Also, purchasing an image that already existed revealed cheap imagery; thin models, plain uniforms, no excitement in the action scene and the player positions didn’t even come close to a nice looking field goal kicking scene good enough to be present on a book cover. After hours of researching a cost effective solution, it was decided that an illustration was our only choice. The illustration is not a rendering of an existing scene, it is a compilation of various players in an assortment of positions all grouped together to fit exactly perfect into the provided cover space – each player can be moved individually – even the colors, background crowd, grass and goalpost were made editable and accessible for any client revisions.
Design:
The first thing we did was research a cost effective solution to fit into a logical budget. Three hours were spent drawing sketches on paper to determine the illustration concept design. The final low resolution concept took six hours to generate – creating and dropping in each player individually, creating the crowd concept and the grass field. We were able to get this design approved very quickly and then began the final hi-res production mechanicals, including the hi-res version of the illustration.
Production:
Each player was illustrated separately to provide accessible movement just in case the client needed a last minute revision. Producing a design like this as a high resolution production mechanical comes with many little details, for instance the crowd in the background was extensively edited to avoid any undesirable color patterns, the jerseys and helmets were given colors and textures, the grass was given a texture treatment, highlights, shadows and chalk lines to enhance the foreground. And, the last touch was a blue sky and subtle clouds to allow the headline to read clearly from a distance.
What was included:
• Research (2 hours)
• 3 Concept sketches (3 hours)
• 1 Low resolution color design (6 hours)
• Hi-Res Graphic Illustration (12 hours)
• High resolution graphic production (3.25 hour)
• Final hi-res text revisions (.25 hour)
• Total Project Cost = $1,325.00