So this week was one of miscommunication and frustration and eventually resolution. I didn't even think my cover was going to get chosen. Honestly, I just thought of the idea randomly and decided to execute it because I thought it was fun and made me chuckle. I mean, it was content-driven, but mostly I was just having fun with it. I was happy with what I turned in and apparently so were the editors because they picked it.
So I spruced it up on Sunday and all was good. The illustration was supposed to be cartoonish because it was supposed to be comic book esque without being overly Lichtenstein as to mimic Brittany's feature. I was pleasantly surprised to become attached to the idea as it shaped into a more complete concept.
Tuesday I got word that some people didn't like the cover at all and that they wanted a photo cover instead. To put it bluntly, I was peeved. Tuesday is not the time to be completely reconceptualizing a cover. Especially when the suggestion is to put 9 photos on the cover when they're already on both the splash page and in the feature itself. Talk about repetitive. So I fixed up the illustration a bit and added rings so it wasn't like fists butting heads or something. I wanted to get across that it was about powers uniting.
Getting a call at 9 am to come into Vox to change the cover on production day when you're at work trying to make money so you can move to Austin is slightly infuriating. However, at least Jen was on my side and apologized for all the mix ups and miscommunications. I was under the impression that I was supposed to try new ideas and if they didn't work, then we were just going to go with what we had because obviously there was something about it that made them pick it over two other choices. While walking I had an idea to cutout the basketball girls and put the same stroke around them as the one around Dynamic so that I could keep my typography. I tried that and gave options without the stroke and the full picture as well. We went with the full picture one because they said the stroke one made it look religious or something. Whatever.
I'm actually pleased with how it turned out. The colors work well with the photo and the pose is generic "dynamic duos" enough to please everyone. Hooray for playing it safe.
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