Cover Designs: Step One

Every spring and every fall for the last dozen years or so, a new Zits collection book has been published by Andrews McMeel. That’s a lot of books, and with just a couple of exceptions, we have done the covers ourselves. Sometimes they design themselves, other times they grab you by the lip and pull you, kicking and screaming through the process, and then deposit you whimpering and shaking at the publisher’s feet, begging for help… with a sore lip.

We’re in the process of designing the fall 2011 collection, which will be a hardcover (our first!) and contain the Best of Zits Sunday strips. The title is Sunday Brunch. Here is Jim’s initial thumbnail sketch.

 

Cool idea… a photo of real teenager stuff scattered across a floor in that casual, carefree way that screams, “GET IN HERE AND CLEAN UP THIS MESS BEFORE I…” But since the publisher likes the characters to be featured prominently on the covers, I did a couple of alternative designs.

 

So we voted, and none of them won.

 

Next: Step Two.