Book cover - The Future of Water

The Future of Water - A Startling Look Ahead

We have written an interesting and fast-paced book about water. It covers everything from drinking water to global warming.

We have one suggestion for the cover now, which is to photoshop a city and a parched earth together into a kind of crystal ball, with a field and another bit of parched earth in the background and some hands around the crystal ball.

It's not a great idea, but it's about all we have right now. The other idea we have is the type of the title done large, and in the space of the letters put in some photos topics from the book, such as an apple, a lawn, a glass of water, a dam, an ocean, etc.

The thing we need is for the book to look thoroughly modern and something that is future-looking, but without looking like something occult-like or something from a circus sideshow (so, no crystal balls.)

We also don't want it to look like Star Trek, or science fiction. This book is based on research and years in the water industry. The cover should reflect that the book talks about the future, but only in terms of the best science and the most current trends of today.

The target audience is listed in the attached document at the end of the intro. In short, it's anyone interested in water as a part of the environment, a part of business, or a part of their career.

So what we need is something, in short, that just looks really good. The typography should be spot-on, the use of photos (if any) very professional and colors should be modern and appealing.

I've attached a document that has more about the target audience, and has an early version of a proposed intro. That intro, in some form, will likely appear on the inside flaps of the dustcover. You don't need to do that typography for this project, just the cover, but we included it so you can get a sense of what we are trying to do with the book, and therefore the cover.

This will be a standard hardback trade publication, so about 6.5 x 9.5 inches, but obviously it will be full bleed, and the color and potentially the photo will need to bleed around for the dust-flap part of the book cover, the spine, and potentially the back cover as well.

Be sure that the design is flexible so that it can grow or shrink a bit, and don't have it too busy near the edges.

Also, once we have the cover we'll ask you to help with the spine, but that will be reflective of the cover, so let's do the cover first.

If you decide to use a photograph, make sure that it's either royalty-free or that we can purchase the rights for very little money.

The full text that must be on the cover:

The Future of Water
A Startling Look Ahead
Steve Maxwell with Scott Yates
Foreword by Bruce Babbitt, former U.S. Secretary of the Interior

The text of the second part of the title -- "A startling look ahead" -- may change so keep that part of the file editable.

I understand it's not much time to do a book cover, but what we are really looking for right now is just a concept that we like. There will probably be some follow up work for things like the spine, back-cover, etc. Also potentially for some of the inside elements.

Thanks very much and we look forward to picking a winner and seeing it on bookshelves around the world this Spring!