The cover of my new children's book!
Two BIG Announcements today about the children's book.
1) I'm excited to show the full cover of the book for the first time to the public!!!!!
We went through a lot of different ideas about what the cover should be.
We wanted the cover to easy to read from afar (pass what we call the "billboard test" if you just glanced at the cover could you get what you needed to get from it in only a few seconds as if you driving by a billboard on the highway)
Then we had a big debate of whether we should actually put the Purple Penguin on the cover or even in the book at all. The reason why this is hard makes sense when you read the book.
We came to a happy medium on the cover because we showed the penguin but he was just exiting the scene.
The penguin is on the cover but just out of sight and we have to go a journey to find him.
If you notice a few details on the cover, the penguin is turning the book purple on the far right, it's currently being turned purple and the coat on the far left is already purple with tracks leading from the coat to the book.
This is alluding to the fact that the penguin turns things purples (which will all make sense to the reader as they read the story). The boy is looking for the penguin but just in the wrong direction.
We also learned that images of faces that show expressiveness attract people. You will see this used a lot in YouTube thumbnails and Netflix thumbnails. So we wanted the face of the boy to be the primary visual of the book title for this reason.
We wanted to make the purple title jump out so we found an interesting contrast with the purple outlined in white and on a yellowish background would be a great way to make the title jump out.
One test I like to do with book covers is to see where my eyes naturally go first. First, my eyes look at the boy, second the title and thirdly the penguin on the right.
**Could you do me a favor and leave a comment letting me know where your eyes naturally go first, second, and then third when you look at the cover, it would be very helpful!**
The second announcement comes later today. SOOOO Excited to be getting to the final lap of finishing this children's book. AHHHHHH SOOO PUMPED!
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If you would like to be updated on our journey to publishing our first children's book, please follow the hashtag #whoisthepurplepenguin