The book cover was our second project and, of course, my second panic attack.
I decided I was going to design the cover for my first collection of short stories. I took a bunch of words I liked together (and that, frankly, described my life for a while last year) and combined them with a photo I took from my favorite seat at my favorite pub, Brogues over on Lake Avenue and K Street, a place that I have gone for refreshment and inspiration on many occasions.
Downtown Lake Worth, where Brogues is located, is an area that probably peaked in the late 50s or early ‘60s. It’s fascinating for its contradictions: It’s kind of run down and grimy, yet it’s a few blocks from a nice strip of beach; small theatres and gritty punk rock clubs sharing street time with a Starbucks and a kava bar. There must be a thousand stories hiding under the gray sidewalks; a lot of my stories are set here.
For this one project, I decided I was going to take Gimp head on. I read a bunch of tutorials, read a bunch of stuff about it, and thought I could apply it to the book cover. Or so I thought. Despite my confidence, I couldn’t really do much with it.
I discovered Microsoft Publisher at this point, and this discovery (thanks, Sara) probably saved my grade in this class. While it doesn’t do as much as Gimp, it thinks like the Microsoft products that I use every day. The limitations creatively were worth it for the sanity it provided.
There isn’t a lot of difference between the original and the revision. I changed the font to Forte and made it bigger. Forte kind of had this old feel that made it look like the title script for a 1960s TV show. That fits the area. It was also kind of a fun looking font, which I thought provided a neat contrast to the grimy area shown in the photo. You’ll also note that the photo is a little bigger than the original. I was able to get the whole photo the second time around.
