If I Were A Designer

A bit of housekeeping: I've decided to move Saturday Sketch to Friday Sketch, which is less alliterative but otherwise the same. The reason is simple—I'm going completely dark on weekends. Not even email. I know, wish me luck. I think it'll be really good for me, actually, to have a couple days away from this world to remember why I like it so much. So if you email me on a weekend, know I won't be seeing it until Monday.

Now, on the the silly stuff.

I did something last night that I swore I'd never do. I designed my own cover, and then felt really lame about it.

Though I do have design/art experience, my reasons for not designing a cover were many:

1) I didn't have Photoshop or Quark and couldn't do it properly anyway. That excuse was remedied a couple months ago.

2) Whatever I designed would never ever ever be the actual cover, and I didn't want to get attached to something.

3) What I envision for my cover is probably not at all what you expect, and I worry about what people think, despite my best efforts. It seems like people think it'll be way more "artsy" than it is.

4) I didn't want to admit that I think about my cover as much as I do. Curse you, wild imagination/lofty dreams!

5) I'm not THAT good. You guys are horribly kind about my art, but in the grand scheme of things I am an amateur.

But last night I designed my cover anyway. I've had this idea for a long time, and I just wanted to see what the concept would look like. If I were actually designing this, I'd do a few different word placements to see what looked best, but I'll just show you the prototype:
Not what you expected, huh. It's a verrrrry simple design, but I've always liked minimalist covers, and there's no doubt this would pop on a shelf. If you don't recognize the symbol, take a look:
I thought playing on street signs would be a cool thing to do if it ever turned into a series. Yes, because I'm THAT deluded. Plus, every time I see a Do Not Enter sign I picture ninja eyes in it. I can't help myself.

Also, this cover is fairly gender neutral, which is something I ultimately hope for in my cover. And according to me, it's FUNNY, which alludes to aspects of the book. Not only that, but it's slightly reminiscent of the Japanese flag. Oh, the layers of implication:)

So yeah, if I were a designer, this is what I'd do with my own cover. But I am completely aware that I won't have much say and I'm okay with that. Very okay. I mean, this is a pretty silly cover anyway. I bet real designers would come up with something way better.