FEC #4: Book Cover Design for ''Turn FUNNY EMAIL into CASH!''

**Do you Photoshop your own dreams!?** 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. I'm looking for graphic designers who really know their craft and their tools, as well as being incredibly detail-oriented (as you will see that I am, as well). If you are willing to follow each of my steps (below), we'll end up with a high quality product quickly. To put it bluntly, there's really very little or no opportunity for creativity on this particular project. I am very open to suggestions, of course, but please do *not* perform any work which hasn't been specified here until we have had a chance to discuss it first. This project covers three separate deliverables: * Images of the front and back covers, each exactly 4" x 5.5", as two PNG files. These will be used for the online version of the book. There is no bleed area. * A PDF file with a pagesize of 420mm x 279mm** to be used for physical printing, which will have two copies of the combined front-and-back covers. It is very important to understand that the innermost 8" x 5.5" portion of each of those two images will be *identical* to the back (left) and front (right) covers above, but then surrounded by an additional quarter-inch bleed area on all sides which will normally never be seen, so as to compensate for possible inaccuracies in the cutting/folding process. (i.e., After the cuts, the covers will then be identical to the PNG files.) * *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. ## Deliverables *If you're curious, you can get a free copy [here][1]. **This will give me the flexibility of printing either in the States (17" x 11": 432mm x 279mm) or in China (A3: 420mm x 297mm). It's thus prudent to create an image using the smaller of each dimension, 420mm x 279mm. 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. 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. PDF uses at least 300 dpi (84.7µm) resolution. PDF uses CMYK colorspace, rather than RGB. In fact, if you are able to easily deliver the PDF with an *additional* four pages, with the four CMYK color plates already separated, that'd really be awesome. (I'm kinda hoping that this is a simple macro in your graphic editing program.) *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 (**[login to view URL]**); I am obviously not a graphic artist, myself. I tried to crop the picture to capture what's most important, keeping the model's face as large as possible. Here are the specific requirements: 1. **Front Cover:** Flip the original photograph (**[login to view URL]**) so that the model faces to the viewer's right, as shown in **[login to view URL]**. Cover Model: Jessica Ellis Photographer: Will Myers ([login to view URL]) Copyright © 2012, David Beroff. All Rights Reserved. 2. Refer to **[login to view URL]** for the next three points. I want to capture the original "texture" of the picture, including the model's flyaway hair and most of the subtle gradations of the background cloth. *Keep the model's hair against the cloth,* exactly as it shows in the picture, but then smooth/soften/blur the *shadow's* edge into the cloth (away from the model). One way to do this might be to extend the shadow color up and gradually toning it down until the hue is light enough to mesh with the background. 3. Remove the folds and other shadows/imperfections on the cloth, (see **[login to view URL]**), 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. Remove the chair, floor, lamp, and extend the background cloth to replace the floor. Luckily the bottom part of the chair is close enough in color to the background that the two can merge together. (See **[login to view URL]**.) Yes, I understand that you might have to lose a lock or two of her hair to do all of this; that's fine if it's necessary. 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 red outline around each letter, and a *very* subtle (barely noticeable) feathering/shadow outside of the letters. Each letter should have a smooth gradation of color going from bright yellow at the top to darker yellow/gold at the bottom. "FUNNY", "EMAIL" and "CASH" should use slightly larger initial letters, (i.e., "F", "E", & "C"), along with a larger exclamation point ("!"), still using the same baseline as the rest of the letters. See **[login to view URL]** for direction on how the individual letters should be placed. (Please use a slightly thicker red outline than shown there.) See **[login to view URL]** for direction on placement of the title over the photograph. Certainly the final placement will be key to the overall cover presentation and visual "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. Thick red "X" through this "old" price, but still ensuring the viewer can deduce what it says. Keep the "4" visible, and obscure part of the "9" with the lines of the "X". 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. At the top, ad text *exactly* as shown in **[login to view URL]**. I've also provided **[login to view URL]** ([login to view URL] Writer format) with identical text and layout if this is easier for you. 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 (**[login to view URL]**). At 150dpi, this image should be 1.67" x 1.24". Please be *very* careful that this image does not get resized from the original. If you zoom in, you will note that the bars are *very* crisp, i.e., the pixels are either black or white, without any grey. They need to stay that way. :-) 15. At the bottom, legal text, exactly as shown in **[login to view URL] (.odt)**. ? 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 interior pages will be less than a millimeter thick total, and thus, I'm not even bothering to account for a spine for the cover. 18. The two covers form the centered, innermost 8" x 5.5" portion of the page. Next is the quarter-inch of bleed area. For the back cover, this is simply whitespace. The dark red vertical rectangle should extend out into the bleed area, for a total height of 6.0". On the right half of the bleed 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 bleed area, we've now defined a centered 8.5" x 6.0" area. 19. Leave a quarter-inch of white area around that, and then two thin quarter-inch crop mark 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 9.5" x 7.0" area. 20. Place an exact second copy of the 9.5" x 7.0" a reasonable distance from the first instance. (maybe 1.5" apart?) 21. Outside of the bleed 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), (**[login to view URL]**), 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!