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Cover design for technical books
a print design project by Michael1

Michael1 has picked a winning print design

For $500 they received 45 design concepts from 10 designers!

  • Award 1
    ML Guide Interior Pages by rmbuning

Over 25,500 small businesses - and some big ones - trust crowdSPRING with custom logo design, web design and writing services. 96% of them would recommend that you try us too.

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Dates

Starts:21-Apr-09 10:42 a.m. GMT

Ends:5-May-09 10:42 a.m. GMT

Awards

Award 1: $500, was awarded to rmbuning

Formats

"AI (VECTOR BASED)","PDF"

Contract

Preview: crowdSPRING Contract

Materials

There are no materials for this project.

Creative brief

The buyer added updates to the brief. Read them.

LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT US:

I'm Michael Lever, a self-employed commercial property surveyor in UK, dealing with shop property for landlords and retailers in England and Wales.

To find out what I'm looking for, please visit my web site, http://www.michaellever.co.uk and click on ML Guides. Each ML Guide provides information on aspects of the work I do and is available free of charge as downloadable pdf.

Also, please visit my free resource - http://www.marketingyourself.co.uk - to get some insight into my approach generally. Reading the MY philosophy should be enough. I don't need you to be completely into "mind, body, spirit" stuff but I don't want someone so heavenly wonderful as to be no earthly good!

I use Apple iMac (Tiger). The web site I've designed myself using RapidWeaver 3.6.7. It's not ideal because I can't alter the graphics or layout and really I'd like to return to Dreamweaver and design a one-page site using spry. I have most leading software applications, including Adobe Design Suite CS4 (which I don't know the first thing about, but one of these days...), Acrobat 9 Pro and Lightroom 2, and I subscribe to B and A magazine but, basically, I'm a wordsmith and good at marketing, so whilst I can write the content, my non-existent ability otherwise lets me down so far as the overall look/design is concerned and in the end it looks a mess.

What I'd like, please, is for someone to come up with a simple but professional design (template) for the cover page and page layout and recommended font and colour for content of the ML Guides, so I can continue to use my own photographs on the cover page, and elsewhere the format and font recommended by the designer. I've experimented with A5 and A4 landscape for screen reading but on balance A4 portrait is best, also enables me to print copies myself off my site when I need to post info to a client. (I print b/w only, but that's immaterial so far as you are concerned.)

I'm aware that Times Roman, for example, is better for printed matter, but Arial or Verdana, for reading on screen, and it would be a service to offer the ML Guides in choice of formats, either to print or read on screen, so maybe a slightly different layout would be needed? I won't spend any money on buying fonts, so only those available in iWork 08 or Office 2007 should be used.

I'm inspired by the simplicity of the style of Adobe design, especially for Lightroom 2.0, which is why I have a separate site for photographs - http://www.photoshopfront.org - using the web gallery feature in LR2.

What I don't like and would not be suitable for the work I do is anything visually cluttered, fancy, swirling writing, etc. This is not a project that invites you to play around, nor one that whereby you might all you need do is present to me what other surveyors are doing. (And do keep away from estate agents!) The nearest equivalent to my sort of work would be solicitors and lawyers.

I provide a 5-6 star service at 2-3 star prices. (Yes, it can be done!) So, what I'm looking for is something that is discerning, displays elegance, taste and care and has, above all, been designed with the end-user in mind, namely my clients and prospective clients.


Thank you




HERE IS WHAT WE NEED:

See above

OUR TARGET AUDIENCE IS:

Private investors and landlords, smaller retailers. I want them to think I am the best person to help them either maintain/increase the value of their investments, or reduce their rents.

WE LIKE THESE DESIGNS:

See above

WE ABSOLUTELY MUST HAVE (or we don't want to see) THIS IN OUR DESIGN:

See above

Brief updates

21-Apr-09 11:25 a.m. GMT
PS - I'm not averse to cartoons, provided they're dry wit.
23-Apr-09 8:54 a.m. GMT
Of the submissions so far, only 1 has managed to capture the essence of what I am hoping to express.

There is no need to come up with something completely different to what I've done myself. What I want is a professionally-designed version of what I'm done already. As I've told people, the photos of the shops on my web site were never taken with a view to publication, which is why they vary in quality, etc. Also, my choice of photo(s) of a shop(s) on the front cover would give the reader the impression that's the sort of property I deal with, so I'd misrepresent my potential because I deal with all types of shops, from 100% best in shopping malls to ramshackle buildings in run-down areas. Generally, people say my personal photos are lovely and that enables us to establish an emotional connection. I doubt they'd say that of my pictures of shops!

In communication, I operate at a very deep level of understanding. It's not unusual for complete strangers to tell me their innermost secrets within about 5 minutes of meeting me. To establish that trust almost instantaneously can only be done by ensuring that when people read between the lines or listen to what I'm not saying they still say yes. That is what I want please of the design of the ML Guides.
Thank you
29-Apr-09 12:34 p.m. GMT
I'm finding this experience somewhat trying. Probably some of you are too!

I'm good with words, you're good with graphic design. Surely it's possible the two can meet?

Overdoing capitals is a non-no.
As is too much italic.
As is finding a position for all the bits of text regardless of ther relationship with one another. For example, ML Guide, with Established 1975 underneath would not make sense. The Guide wasn't established then, my business was. Similarly, I don't want Michael Lever in big letters because I'm not 'selling' me, I'm selling what the guide is about.
Colour is no big deal, the photos have enough colour.
Fussiness is out. This is a cover to introduce the guide which would be glanced at on the way in to the content. It's not a book cover along the lines of 'this looks interesting, I'll buy it". It's not to make a statement: I don't need to give the impression of how wonderful I could be; my reputation often precedes me as it is!




1-May-09 7:32 a.m. GMT
For the formats, please amend to PDF or Indesign CS4.