FEC #3: Book Cover Design for ''Turn FUNNY EMAIL into CASH!''

**Graphic Designers:** I need a cover for my book, *Turn FUNNY EMAIL into CASH!** I have *very* specific ideas on how I want this to look, and you need to be able to translate my instructions into a cover which is clean, professional, balanced, pleasing to the eye, and effective towards the goal of urging an impulse purchase. This project covers three separate deliverables: * Images of the front and back covers, each exactly 4" x 5.5". These will be used for the online (PDF) version of the book. * A single 11" x 8.5" image to be used for physical printing. It is very important to understand that the innermost 8" x 5.5" portion of the image will be *identical* to the back (left) and front (right) covers above, but then surrounded by an additional half-inch "safety" area on all sides which will normally never be seen, so as to compensate for possible inaccuracies in the cutting/folding process. * *All* source files necessary to rebuild the entire project in the future, so as to allow for minor changes to the book title, subtitle, price, etc. While it's fine to submit a large portfolio to me in your bid, _it's very important for you to highlight *one to three* examples of your *existing* work which is the most relevant to this particular project._ i.e., Show me when you've arranged words on photograph(s) in the past, maybe where you worked on fonts, so that I know you are capable of doing this. I am *not* going to hunt through a whole portfolio looking for this; you need to show me the most relevant examples. ## Deliverables *If you're curious, you can get a free copy [here][1]. I hate to have to even mention the following two points here, but suffice to say that I have been on vWorker for many years, and I've seen a lot of different behaviors. Do not start (or complete) work on this particular project until your bid has been accepted; that is against vWorker policy. I want to be impressed by your *existing* work, not on your willingness to do my job with the potential of not getting paid if not selected. *All* portions of your portfolio *must* be your own work. Any discrepancies in quality between your original application and your project submission will be reported to vWorker, (and I've never lost a single arbitration here). Sorry to be so blunt here, but I've seen plenty of fraud over the years. I've also seen many remarkable, talented workers with great work ethics here! :-) All files should use lossless file formats. *Please* copy/paste all text *directly* from this spec, so as to minimize typos! [This][2] is a *very* rough layout for the front cover; I am obviously not a graphic artist, myself: Here are the specific requirements: 1. **Front Cover:** Flip the original photograph (to be provided) so that the model faces to the viewer's right, as shown. 2. Soften/blur (or remove) the shadows of the model's hair on the background cloth. 3. Remove the folds and other shadows/imperfections on the cloth, so that no attention is drawn to the background. The existing slight, gradual changes in color and texture are fine as is. 4. Replace the floor with a continuation of the background. Yes, I understand that you'll lose a lock or two of her hair; that's fine. 5. Dark red vertical stripe on the entire left edge of the front cover. Note that this will correspond to the similar stripe on the right edge of the back cover, so as to allow some minor inaccuracies for the staple-binding/fold line. 6. We'll probably spend some time discussing/reviewing the presentation of the title, which is: "Turn FUNNY EMAIL into CASH!" I'm unfortunately not yet sure which font family to use here, and I'm open to suggestions. I want the font to use a thin, red outline around each letter. Each letter should have a smooth gradation of color going from bright yellow at the top to darker yellow/gold at the bottom. Depending on the font, the words with lower case letters might just use smaller capital letters. Even the other three words may use slightly larger initial letters. My placement on the example wasn't perfect, and obviously a lot will be dependent on the actual font used. Certainly the final placement will be key to the overall cover presentation and "flow". 7. Dark red horizontal stripe extending from the left edge. The right edge of this stripe should be angled so as to match the angle of the italic letters (in the next point), perhaps 15°. 8. White lettering on the dark red horizontal stripe: "A NEW BOOK FOR OUR NEW ECONOMY". All caps, no punctuation. Use a simple italic font, perhaps slightly taller than normal. Ideally, add some subtle spacing in between each letter. 9. White "$4.95" near lower left corner. Red line (or "X") through the "old" price, but still ensuring the viewer can deduce what it says. 10. Yellow starburst near lower right corner. I need to have the full legal right to use the starburst for this project. Photograph will show around the starburst; I just didn't know how to do this using Microsoft Paint. :-) Black letters: "NOW ONLY". Larger, red letters: "$2.95!", in bold. Leave more room than I did near the edges of the cover. 11. **Back Cover:** Dark red vertical stripe on the entire right edge of the back cover; see above comment. 12. Near the top, perhaps in a dark blue arial font: (Don't forget to copy/paste!) > This book reveals the *startling secret* of how _you_ can **turn funny email into CASH**, using simple techniques that have been used by only a _few shrewd marketers_ with **astonishing results.** The secret has its origins in the _Middle Ages_, and yet is so sophisticated that it once convinced **Bill Gates to give away 2,769,148 shares of Microsoft** in just one day! Stop reading this blurb already and ask the friendly cashier to scan this book _right now!_ 13. Then, centered, a very large red arrow pointing down. Again, I need full legal right to the arrow. 14. Then, centered, a UPC code (to be provided). 15. Near bottom, in a much smaller font: > Copyright © 2012, David Beroff. **All Rights Reserved.** > Reproduction without permission is strictly prohibited. > 1078 Wyoming Avenue #200, Wyoming, PA 18644 USA > > **Retailers: Get this cheap!** [login to view URL] 16. **Print Layout:** Back cover is on the left, front cover is on the right. There's *no* line (or other demarcation) separating the two dark red vertical stripes; they simply appear as a single rectangle. 17. The two covers form the centered, innermost 8" x 5.5" portion of the page. Next is the half-inch of "safety" area. For the back cover, this is simply whitespace. The dark red vertical rectangle should extend out into the safety area, for a total height of 6.5". On the right half of the safety area, the photograph continues in each direction: Background on the top and right edges, and more of the model (e.g., the bottom of her key-shaped necklace pendant) at the bottom. With the safety area, we've now defined a centered 9" x 6.5" area. 18. Leave a quarter-inch of "quiet" area around that, and then two thin quarter-inch lines at each of the four edges, which indicate where the blades should be placed to cut the innermost 8" x 5.5" portion. Similarly, there should be two thin quarter-inch dotted lines at the top and bottom, indicating where to bind and fold. (Maybe even indicators of '4"' and '5½"' in the center of each area, with arrows pointing outward to the associated lines?) We've now defined a centered 10" x 7.5" area. 19. Outside of the safety area, (and ok to place either within or outside the blade/fold line area), place at least four "crosshairs" printer registration marks (like those shown [here][3], except I need a legal copy), plus several other CMYK Printing Elements as they'll reasonably fit. The idea is to allow the printer to align the four color plates, so the CMYK square appears correctly. I can purchase that exact image if you don't already have access to something similar. Any questions, please ask. There is no such thing as a stupid question!