Found myself with a lot of time this weekend and smartly threw it all into writing, but along the way I had a couple of ideas about some other things that crept into being. I read a decent article on branding last week and thought it was certainly worth checking over everything here which effectively meant making more work for myself. Cutting a medium length story very short, I worked on something that's been bugging me for a while. At the moment, I've not put a 'publishing company' name on any products and it's been haunting me that maybe I should. So I downed tools on Sunday afternoon, picked up some different tools and came up with a concept for my own publishing brand called Twin Earth. Eventually, I guess it will have to be set up as a business (because right now it's worth nothing at all believe me). Anyway, the logo looks like this at the moment:
and the mono version for internal usage:
I didn't want it to say an awful lot but I did want it to at least be recognisable and unobtrusive. By using a simple two colour scheme, one of which is a variation on the other, I think I should be able to consistently change the colour logo to match whatever cover design it has to go on. I'm going to sit on it for a little while and then, maybe in a week or so, I'll drop it on the cover of Black Dye, White Noise and Thieves and Vagabonds to see how it conducts itself. For the curious, there's no huge story behind it. A while back I wrote a song called Cobalt Rain in which one the lyrics is 'Now my twin earth is pacified' - and that's all there is to it. It's an expression I like a lot and somewhere deep down, I'm sure it means an awful lot more than I'm letting on.
Truth be told, I know it does but that's explanation enough.
With one eye on what I said a few days ago about doing things yourself and doing them properly, this is probably a good idea. If you missed what I said, the point was to make yourself look like a pro - and therefore become a pro. If you can't do it yourself, get somebody who is a pro to do it for you. In a market that's totally flooded and in the public eye every day, it's never been more important to rise above the MS Word brigade and set yourself apart. We've all seen them - a basic font dropped onto an awful picture and then sent out into the world to do some work for you. Sometimes I feel embarrassed for those poor products. 'They might sell well' I hear you say. Indeed they might, but so do a lot of things that are awful. It doesn't bode well in the long run and if I may re-quote myself here - it's like going to work in your pyjamas.
If you're unsure how to go about it, the answer is unbelievably simple. Take some products from a company that you respect, doubtless they'll be lying around on the shelf already - in my case this is Harper Collins because I really like their production values - and replicate what they do. It requires no small amount of thought but better to hold a torch up to Harper Collins than 'Joe Pistachio the self publisher' because essentially, the amount of work is the same whichever road you choose.
As a final word on the subject, if you really need some help, there are many students around on the internet who have redesigned book covers as part of various course projects. Some of the work I've seen out there is even better than the original commission that made it to the 'big shelves'. It's totally worth getting yourself immersed in this world if you want to set yourself apart. If on the other hand you're more than happy to be a one hit wonder... knock yourself out.
The world is watching.