Over at their fairly new blog, Digital Manga has revealed the cover for their upcoming manga release of Utahime, along with a new cover design that will replace their current look on future books released under the Digital Manga Publishing name (with the exception of series already running).
What do people think? Digital Manga staff are asking for opinions. As for my thoughts, while the colour gradient and DMP logo layout looks nice, I’m really not liking the look of the wrap-around rectangular border. It condenses the artwork and looks really… cheap somehow? Very cut and paste, certainly unbalanced I think. But, I’ll wait and see how it looks in print before making any final judgements.
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Hmm. It seems like I've been looking at/thinking about manga cover design a lot lately, and then this comes up! I agree with you about it looking cut-paste and cheap (although when I just saw the smaller picture you had above, where the top and bottom were cut off entirely, it didn't look so bad as seeing the border continue around the entire cover).
One of my favourite manga design-concepts is Tokyopop's, which has that spine-edge border with its name on every book, but uses a different kind of pattern (flowers, shuriken, frills, brushed-metal, etc) that sorta reflects the contents or mood of the story. A simple colour gradient isn't enough to do that. Not to mention gradients just make me think of cheesy PowerPoint slideshows. I think if DMP were to at least make different patterns or designs in that border, and not just all gradients, it would be helpful in establishing a sort of "identity" for individual books or series, and make the covers more interesting to look at.
I guess I should say, I don't read any of DMP's current titles (although I am looking forward to Itazura na Kiss), so this doesn't really have a huge effect on me personally. But I get kinda worked up about design :D I like pretty books!
I agree with you completely about Tokyopop. I really love their attention to detail on a variety of their spine-edges. My recent favourite would be for their 10-volume series, +Anima. The whole book package had a really good, complimenting look to it.
Though I do agree from a publisher's point of view that you want a reader to be able to quickly determine which books are yours, its even more important to let the book's individual identity shine through. I like your suggestions for DMP's new design, and it could certainly use that extra attention. Admittedly though I have trouble seeing anything doing much good to the whole wrap-around look. That border needs to be severely cut back first I'd say.
Also, it was a pleasant surprise getting a post from you on my blog here, Lys! Been a long time since I've seen you after you left DA. The children's book illustrations I saw on your website a while ago were absolutely adorable! Hope you've been well ^^
Hehe! I wondered if you'd recognize the name out of DA-context. I was pretty excited myself when I came across your site a while back (I'm a daily MangaBlog visitor) and thought, "I know her! She was the first online person I ever talked to!" It's nice to come across old friends and see how they've developed their interests over the years :D I still post semi-regularly on livejournal (username is lyschan) but I guess I did kinda abandon DA, eheh. Thanks for the kind words about my artwork!
And yes, +Anima really has great cover illustrations and spine-edges. It contributes to that feeling where you want to have them all, so you can line them up and admire how they work together as a set—which is definitely a good way to encourage book sales!!
Small internet I guess :D I don't post much on LJ these days but I still use it for the watch feature. Hope you don't mind if I Add Friend you over there. Like you said, it really is great coming across old friends and seeing what they're up to now. Hope to see you around some more ^^
[…] about the look that the Doki Doki books themselves will have. As some may recall, Digital Manga recently revealed the cover designs that their future releases under the original DMP imprint will be having. Both the […]