Could you help me choose a cover for Chief Culture Officer?
Cover 1
Cover 2:
Cover 3:
Thanks for your help.
Please feel free to live comments and suggestions.
Could you help me choose a cover for Chief Culture Officer?
Cover 1
Cover 2:
Cover 3:
Thanks for your help.
Please feel free to live comments and suggestions.
I vote fore #2. The olden type makes it seem more substantial. Blue = more reliable. Can’t use the poll b/c it’s displaying as code.
Of the three, I’d go for #1. It says “living, breathing” much more than the other two. Interested to see which one you like.
Rob and Shannon, thanks for your votes. Poll now up. Could I ask you to
register your vote. Or I can do it for you. Best, Grant
Grant, I have voted, but to be honest I don’t think any of them capture the concept or the importance of the concept.
I think #1 is the closest
Alan, very interesting and useful, why do these feel wrong to you? Best,
Grant
Cover two by far. Did you put that one there for a specific reason, using some kind of “Primordial Jedi Culture-man mind trick”
Grant, I’m with Alan. #1 is too airy and therefore dismissable by the leather chair-drivers who most need to consider the real visceral power underlying your message, #2 seems too directly an effort to co-opt (and stroke) the corporate vernacular and #3 says nothing to me except “run away!”
I know everyone’s an editor, and an art director too, but thought an explanation was better than a blind vote for least un-favorite. Let us know next time, I’d have loved to submit a stab at it even if your publisher does have their own ADs.
#2 is in my opinion the best, but I think it also has the biggest design inconsistencies.
The old style font in “How to create…”, there’s no real reason for it. It ties in with the brown paper, yes, but what does it communicate? I mean the book is not about culture as in things past?
Mark, brilliant, thanks, Grant
Henri, thanks, very useful! Best, Grant
Raymund, um, yes! Best, Grant
Grant, I’m sort of with Alan, I think.
From a pure aesthetic standpoint, I like all three of them, with a vague preference toward 1 or 2… but knowing what I know about your larger concept of the CCO, I’m a little unclear on what each of these three designs aim to reflect or capture or evoke about the core ideas.
I guess I hold great book covers to the standard of, “Would this design clearly make more sense for this particular book than if it were reapplied to any other book in the same genre of books?” And I feel like all three of these designs, at least at first glance, are no more specific to the idea of the CCO than to any other topic in the intelligent-business space. Does that make sense?
I’d be curious to hear what the goals for each of the designs were, if you have the time and inclination to share!
#2 by a country mile. #1 looks like a comp put together by an amateur graphic designer. #2 evokes a fieldbook; suggesting what may or may not be your thesis, that studying culture is fieldwork, that creating corporate culture requires those tools. It’s also a bit provocative, in that it doesn’t look like A Business Week where everything rough and messy is prettied up and packaged for you to digest between Gladwell chapters. It prepares me for that mindset. #3, see prettied up and packaged for you.
Should the second C in your surname in #2 be the one capitalized or is that an intentional switch?
TBH, none of them really seemed right at first glance, though the more I looked at #1 the more it seemed to fit.
Hate the glare of the yellow on the third.
#2 would remind me a field notebook, which would be cool, but there’s something off and that comparison goes flat… the title is a bit large/overpowering esp. for the little subtitle, and the blue is a bit bright.
of all these, I’d pick #1; it’s the most sleek and the dotted C echoes the almost alliterative title, also making me think of little dots on a (culture/corporate?) map and their relationships, as well as participants all grouped together in a little huddle. I’m not sure whether it would clearly/immediately communicate those same to a ‘suit’ browsing a shelf though.
Hi, from an end user perspective, i felt number one was the most intriguing and aesthetically pleasing. The caption ‘how to..” draws me in more than on the others.I’m not a designer though.
I prefer #2, though would switch out the textured blue to something that indicates a more “in the trenches” feel…
I personally like #1 but like others wonder if #2 isn’t more salable to a corporate audience (but I don’t like the typeface for “how to…” in this one).
However, reverse psychology might say that #1 would appeal to the culture-wannabe aspect of the executive – and it looks different than other business books on the shelf. I’d go with #1 (I put in a vote).
Grant
I voted for #3 because there was not a “none of the above” option. I’ll try and visually send you what I’d imagine the cover to look like.
#1 for sure. It telegraphs ‘ecosystem’, ‘organism’ – exactly in line with a living, breathing culture. The others look like other books out there in the marketplace, and I feel that I would know what they’d have to say before even cracking the spine.
Voted for 1, I think the other two are a bit heavy-handed.
btw, the lower case and upper case Cs are reversed on cover two, unless that’s a misguided “cute” design feature
#2 is the only one that possesses the promise of research/conversation/anthropology. for that reason alone i think it’s importantly different.
Cover #2. Looks like a manual, which your book appears to be.
#2 is closest for me as well because it makes the book feel like what i hope it will be: a guidebook and working document to help me (and my clients) operate as CCOs.
but that said, if that’s what it’s meant to communicate, it’s a bit of a half step.
but not a bad one.
The first one might have worked better with a graphic that looked more like a stylized living cell with some indication of stuff passing through its membrane. Not exactly “breathing” but close.
Lee, thanks, yes, I was thinking “field guide,” but not every one likes it.
Thanks again. Grant
Suzie, thanks, I think this first cover does the best job of communicating
the subtitle. Then the question is where the surtitles gets lost somehow.
Thanks, Grant
Steve, yes, I think the anthropologists of the world are going to like 2.
If only there were several millions of us. Thanks, Grant
I like #2 the best from a design perspective; it has a nice human, retro, “classic business” feel with the typewriter typeface and the rounded corners which suggest a moleskin notebook.
But, it’s a newer design style that could easily be misread by a lot of people, so I voted pragmatically for #1.
I voted for number 2. It’s the most fully realized. It says, “workbook” to me and that it will be full of practical information.
Number 1 and 3 the type is bad, and won’t read well on the shelf. Aren’t strong enough and give away nothing related to the content. Very generic. The first, looks like a women’s self-help book. And that centered type in the circle makes me want to scratch my eyes out.
The bottom one is so generic as to be completely non memorable and the leading on the subhead looks all wrong. No reason to space it out like that.
So again, 2. Memorable. High impact. Best design. And with a definite workbook/sketchbook feel that says: let’s get to work.
Christopher, thanks, I kind of like the way the first one captures
respiration, but I am glad to know it’s so annoying for others. I’m trying
to be impartial here. Yeah, that’s it, I like them all equally well.
Thanks, Grant
Mike, thanks, I think it’s a dead heat from a vote point of view. But it
looks like cover 2 is supporting comments. Maybe not. Yeah, that’s it.
I’m impartial. Thanks again. Grant
So we have Dogbert’s “Coffee Ring of Excellence”, a school composition book out of the 1950’s, or
“I Had This Design Lying Around From the Last Business Book I Did.”
I kind of think that a book about creating a living, breathing corporation maybe should use a design that incorporates or at least suggests living, breathing creatures. Something obviously corporate like a graph or balance-sheet transforming into an animal might be too literal, but that’s the feel I’d go for…
Ivan, thanks for having a look. This is the strong third position. The one
that says, “a pox on all these designs.” Thanks! See you at FoE? Grant
Joshua, I was hoping that cover 1 did that, but not for you evidently.
Respiration. How do we communicated respiration. Thanks, Grant
Not much variance here. Not many options. I don’t like any. Blue vs yellow? How about green? How about Culture bigger than Chief? Easy to generate 20 options with simple software. How about crowdsourcing ideas? If I had to choose I would go with 1.
Chad, I kind of like the way the blue looks like nonslip material. Perhaps
for the senior manager when in the trenches and under fire. Thanks, Grant
Hi Grant – I didn’t really have a preference for any of them. 2 and 3 seem to be riffing off each other with the horizontal band effect. The band on 1 is totally disproportional to circles motif which is nicely done, I think, given the sub-title. So my favorite is technically #1, but without a re-design of that, I’d go with #2. You didn’t put an option 4 in: undecided or none of the above. I didn’t make a selection in the poll.
John, geez, none of them! you have no idea how many heavens and earths we
moved to get to these three. Thanks! Grant
Betsy, yes, I should have added a None of the above. So how would you
change cover 1? Thanks, Grant
Steve, thanks, yes, I bet laboratories are filled with great photos of
membranes, how to get to them, and I just did a project for a membrane maker
and I thought, this is a perfect metaphor for the corporation, post silos.
Thanks, Grant
mark and henri perfectly give words to my impression. – all the best grant!
As a book printer and book reader, I like #2. I’m not sure how many you’re planning on having produced, but white is generally boring and bad and solid colors are a pain to produce consistently. #2 has the best overall design elements to make me happy as a printer and reader.
Pretty hard to do this without having read the book, but I think I know a few things about how you’re thinking from reading the blog. And of course, you have to remember that people judge a book by its cover. My impressions:
#1: It’s a fun and creative innovation book
#2: It’s a savvy book about an executive position that has always been around, or really, always should’ve been around. (the turquoise vs. aged paper is creating some cultural dissonance, which could be good)
#3: It’s a how-to book, possibly with space in the margins to answer questions and take notes.
Those are my readings. I guess to be difficult, I’d want to throw it back on you Grant, since you know who your audience is.
wow. this place has changed since my last visit. i ment: mark and henri on the first page sum it up perfectly for me.
my best to everybody, especially also to steve (srp) and to steve portigal, regulars from my more active days on here. and to pam of course.
best
jens
Was leaning toward #1, until I picked up on the field notes concept for #2 from the comments. Now I think it’s the best idea, it’s just not taken far enough to graphically differentiate it from the other business books out there — especially at thumbnail size on the Web, where it’ll probably be seen the most.
As I designer, I have to say I’ve got mixed feelings about putting this up on the Web for a vote ….
Bram, thanks, so one of the questions is how to dial up the field manual,
field notes thing. Thanks, Grant
JKH, sir, pleasure to have you drop by and say hello. Hope all is well and
that we will see you out this way some time soon. Best, Grant
Michael, terrific, very useful, thanks! Grant
#2. Strongest. Communicative.
Go with #2. I like the notebook/antique-y quality of the cover paper look.