HALLMAN: We Are the Aliens - 4

Fonts used: M+ 1m; Fanwood.

The gift the alienkind gave us, the humankind, had revealed some extraordinary facts. It was impossible to believe it, yet all the evidence we needed was there all the time – we just didn’t see it. We knew they could breathe in our atmosphere. We were able to communicate with them. It’s a wonder we didn’t figure it out by ourselves.

And this is the end of the We are The Aliens tetralogy. I think this cover is the worst of all of them, and at the same time, it took more work to finish than the others. I made two alternative designs, though, and I also played a little with the colors.

Oh, and I have updated the last post on this series. Now it has a fictional excerpt.

A few days ago, I posted a rather bad drawing on my tumblr that would serve as starting point for this cover. That’s it, I just wanted to link to that drawing.


P.S.: That’s it, I ran out of ideas. So no new cover for probably a really long time. Maybe I will still update this blog once or twice, with redesigns of old covers or something like that.

TRAVERSE: Half Awake

Font used: DejaVu Sans Mono.

I really like the design, but I’m not quite sure I got the colors right. While the blue/yellow contrast works very well – and those colors are (somewhat) related to night and day, respectively – it’s also true that it’s “a bit” over-used. Because of that, I ended up making two alternative color schemes.

I really don’t know which is the best one, but I really love the darkness of the first alternative.

Oh, the title to this particular non-existent book comes from the song Fake Empire by The National.

HALLMAN: We Are the Aliens - 3

Fonts used: M+ 1m; Fanwood.

There was a small box on the table. The aliens left it there, of course. It was a green box, and it had a card attached to it. I picked the card and looked at it, it was the shape of a small alien head. I smiled, those guys had a sense of humor.

But I was afraid. We didn’t know the aliens very weel, we didn’t know what they were capable of. Maybe there was something bad inside it. Maybe that box was something that I should let alone.

I opened it and everything stood still.

Sorry, no fictional excerpt for this one. The last non-existent book in the series, though, will have an excerpt that I believe will be longer and better than the others. Especially because the last book is actually the one I thought of first, and I imagined te whole series because of it.

***
UPDATE (2013-08-5): As you can see, I put a fictional excerpt there. I think you should know something about it: the whole excerpt is inspired by this Jonathan Coulton’s song: youtube.com/watch?v=0qgFxKIv32Q

It wasn’t meant to be when I started writing it, but I thought about the song while writing, and I couldn’t resist. The more I think about the song, the more I believe it fits really well with the We are The Aliens fictional tetralogy. This excerpt is in my opinion the best of all the fictional books in this series.
***

IMHO, this cover isn’t quite as good as the other two, but that’s what I managed to make with my skills, and I try to work with my limitations, not against them. I believe that’s why my covers are a lot better than these.

HALLMAN: We Are the Aliens - 2

Fonts used: M+ 1m; Fanwood.

“I see you”. The phrase appeared on the computer screen. I tried pressing Ctrl, Alt, and Del, but nothing happened. “I see you I see you I see you I see you”, said the screen. I didn’t understand what was happening […]

Surprise! (As if anyone reads this blog.) “We Are the Aliens” is not just one book. It is actually a series of books. There’ll be four books total, maybe more, but probably not. The next post won’t be a book from the series, though.

HALLMAN: We Are the Aliens

Fonts used: M+ 1m; Fanwood.

 “We are the aliens”, said the one who seemed to be the leader. They looked exactly like the kind of aliens you expect to see in the movies. I could not believe what I was seeing… or hearing. That creature said “the aliens”, as if my partner and I knew which aliens they were.

I am never sure about my stuff when it’s so colorful. I believe I work better if I only have to worry with two or three colors. Nevertheless, this is a nice design, I think. Also, this blog needed more Hallman, since there was only one cover for him until now.

TRAVERSE: Somewhat Alone

Font used: Junction.

When this design first came to mind, I thought maybe Hallman (the poor guy – I only made one cover for him so far) should be the author. However I thought better about it. I asked myself what kind of story would have that title, and it was obvious that Traverse would’ve written it.

HUMMEL: Invisible Beings

 Font used: League Gothic.

I really really love this design. It just came to me out of nowhere and I had to make it.

Actually I think this entirely typographical design fits Traverse best, but the title screams Hummel. (To me, at least, since I know my fictional authors very well.) Speaking of title… please note the absence of a tittle on the author’s name.

TRAVERSE: Heart-Shaped Stains

Fonts used: Ostrich Sans; Knewave.

In a piece of paper was a small stain in the shape of a heart. It looked like a droplet of some liquid had fallen there, except for its unusual shape. When Aline found that piece of paper, she thought it was curious that a stain like that could have been formed – it was like it had a meaning. But she completely dismissed this idea, unaware that it would change her whole life.

I don’t think I got that synopsis quite right, but you get the idea. This cover is actually the first cover I created for Denise Traverse, and the third overall. I made a few edits a couple of minutes before posting it to the blog.

The background is a piece of paper I scanned. The stain was created digitally.

TRAVERSE: Tricia

A guy is completely obsessed with this woman called Tricia, to the point that he starts writing her name everywhere. No one had a clue about his condition before he was found unconscious on the street, with her name written with a razor all over his left arm.

There is, however, one thing very puzzling about his case – every piece of evidence seem to indicate that he never knew or could possibly have known any woman with that name.

This cover was made with my handwriting. I know it doesn’t look very good, but I think that it’s actually better than it’d have been if I used a typeface that simulates handwriting. I believe the terribleness of my handwrinting fits perfectly with the concept behind this cover.

HALLMAN: Seven Black Dots

Font used: League Gothic.

“Then I saw seven black dots painted in one of the bricks. They were disposed a pattern similar to the one in the faces of a die, but they weren’t aligned with the sides of the brick, and I found that a little unsettling. One of the dots was split in two, with a part of it in the brick below.

That struck me as really odd. The regular pattern the dots were in suggested they were there for a reason, yet the split dot suggested they were there purely by accident. I knew then that solving this mystery wouldn’t be as easy as I had expected.”

I don’t know whether these paragraphs are well written or not, but I know that I like it. I kinda wish this wasn’t just something I written to be a non-existent story for a fictional author in order to make a fictional cover. However I don’t believe I would be able to write a story that could include these two paragraphs, since I created them out of context like this.