I decided I haven't been helping you guys enough lately so here we have a chapter about text placement!

Today, over examples, we are going to see the do's and don't s of typography.

Keep in mind that you may not agree with how I do things, place letters etc. and that is totally fine.

Everyone has their unique style.

And here is mine...

To start off simple, I chose a cowboy and worked on a wild west theme. In this picture, there are limited places to put the words. I chose to put 'Wild' on his hat by giving the text a curve and put 'West' below.

The W of the west is a little bit hidden behind the man's face. You can achieve that by cropping it.

I like hiding the text behind the model or an object because it gives a more 3D effect and more depth to the graphic.

(Also it looks cool :P)

Here is a more clear example of hiding the part of the text behind an aspect of the picture.

With this style, Tom Hardy's bulging muscles and biceps are brought forth to attention.

I also want to bring in to attention that there is a significant amount of space left on the right side of the text.

One of the biggest don't in my opinion is to push the text to the edge of the cover.

Leave some space pals, let the edges breathe, don't squash the letters.

I usually place my texts by eye (or according to the model) but I did a template to show 3 simple places to put your titles.

1 • You can put the words at the top,
2 • You can put it in the middle,
3 • Or you can put it at bottom.

Take notice that none of the titles or author names are very close the the sides. Leaving some space is very important.

I usually use these placements on teen fiction, fantasy and romance.

Genres like paranormal, horror or sci-fi can use the same system too but those require a little more eccentric fonts.

~Side note: The author name doesn't always have to be close to the title. You can have the title at the top and the author name at the bottom of the cover.

FONTS

Now obviously I won't put a long list of all my fonts here.

But know that font is as important as placement in typography.

Not every font suits every story.

It is essential to choose the right one for the genre.

Now obviously you are not limited to the fonts listed here.

A font that is under sci-fi can be used in other genres and vice versa.

I prepared this for you to have an idea on what works with the graphic you are making.

Here is an example of how the right font can have a great effect on your cover.

I used the font Anoressic because of its wavy format. Putting it over some waves makes it look like it is one with the sea.

It makes your graphic seem professional while in reality, the font does all the work.

Here is an example of two versions to a cover.

You can always go with the straight forward way and put the text in the middle and be done with it, like the cover on the left.

Or if you're looking for action like me, you can give your title and author name some curve and fit it into the waves, like the cover on the right.

Finding the right places, extraordinary places, to put your fonts may take a while to master.

What you can do for practise is to find random simple photographs and with generic names, work on different styles.

For example I did this training method for this tutorial. I searched sea images and worked on different text placement examples.

Here is an example of a banner.

Making your text the same colour as the main colour of the photo can be tricky.

But it is also necessary at times to make it feel like a part of the picture, to blend it in.

Using the overlay feature on the text helps a lot with that.

But you can also try using different shades of that main colour. There is a whole spectrum of colours and you can play with it until your graphic feels right.

Well I guess what I'm trying to say is,

Don't be afraid to play around with your texts people!

More often than not, the result you get will be worth it.

^ This was meant to be a pre-made but I like how it turned out so much that I might write a new book just to use it lol

I love mock-ups so much.
(They help me pretend that I'm writing actual books :P)

Wow I spoke too much. Sorry people. I hope this chapter helped at least one person.

Thanks for reading!

Love,
Blake

💙