"Minimalist" vs "Full" Covers

[wiggy]

I do still appreciate the original art being available, that's for sure. I use at least the barcodes from those scans . And quite often the title graphic too, which does often require a painstaking amount of work to extract from the original covers.

Just want folks to understand that I'm not at all hating on covers that use original art. Heck, my N64 covers are almost all using original art except for the few that didn't have good scans or were REALLY ugly (I'm looking a you, Beast Wars).

[shenske]

Lets clear this up: My argument isnt that custom covers take less time its that minimalist covers take less time.

Pretty much all of the custom covers I do take more time.  Lets not confuse custom with minimalist (yes I know minimalist is a sort.of custom).

[wiggy]

My minimalist covers often take the MOST time, since I'm usually building everything from scratch.  For instance:

Looks mondo minimal.




Buuuuuut, I had to build those little console icons (and everything else except for the Sony logo that I was able to find in vector form on the web), and that took a LONG time.




This one wasn't entirely from scratch, but I still built a good portion of it on my own including the titles and Mouse icon that I ONLY used for this game since I only have one mouse compatible SFC game.



These little Kart icons were all me.



And I built these cans in Solidworks then rendered them, not to mention the titles on the cans.




Minimal does not always mean quick and easy.

Can a minimalist cover be done very quickly?  Of course.  I've done quite a few that took very little time.  But that fact does NOT mean minimal is synonymous with quick or easy.

[BadChad]

Love the mario & wario and 6-pak cover! It would cool to see Super Hang On and Flicky added to the empty cans on the front and back to have all the logos present. Maybe the back left can on the front and the bottom left can on the back?

[wiggy]

Thanks!

I really wanted to do all of them, but that cover was seriously starting to suck up a LOT of time LOL!

I just realized that I haven't upped either of those two  Man, I'm slacking.  I hope I don't have a backlog of like 50 covers that I'll need to convert, upload, and post  


I'll have to go check my threads and see where I left off...

edit: Crap, I've got a lot of covers that I need to up

[sheep2001]

Wiggy, come on, Shenske is trying to be polite about the recent slew of covers which just have a bit of google search stretched to fit on the front and back.  Whether people like minimalist/custom or not, I don't think there is a single person on this board who would argue about your covers being some of the most creative, well thought out covers here.

And before anyone starts getting defensive,  it's only an opinion, and for everyone of us that don't like the minimalist covers, there will be one who does.  It's just sometimes they need a bit more love.  I remember looking at a whole load, and every game had the same legal info on the back, number of memory card slots, number of players, barcode, etc.  would be better to leave all that off rather than have incorrect info IMHO.  Also this is not necessarily aimed at charlesp1138's covers.  I can't remember who made the ones I am talking about.

[wiggy]

I'm just saying it doesn't have to be a quick copy and paste job, that's all.  I know Shenske fairly well at this point, and I know he wasn't trying to knock me or anything.  Just gotta defend the movement!!!

[shenske]

I'm just saying it doesn't have to be a quick copy and paste job, that's all.  I know Shenske fairly well at this point, and I know he wasn't trying to knock me or anything.  Just gotta defend the movement!!!

Exactly, i'm not trying to ruffle any feather or anything. I just feel very strong about my opinion as he does his. Wiggy's covers are without a doubt VERY creative and i think they look appealing. 

EDIT: I think we've derailed Charlep1138's thread enough. I'll split this off to its own topic

[wiggy]

Good thinking

[djshok]

I like the "full" covers with all the text and legal info and all that stuff.  Can't say I ever cared for minimalism.   That being said though, I do dig the Genesis coves a lot, especially the 6 pack one. 

[JDavis]

I minored in design in college, so I love a well done minimalist cover.... But I also love the retail packaging for not dissimilar reasons. I just love good design Even a bad retail design will often pull at my nostalgia strings, because it will be evocative of the period.

I don't necessarily care for all the legalese, though, especially when it's untrue (I don't think our UGCs are made out of 70% recycled fiber, guys), or just outright unnecessary (I don't need every single game in my collection to have a warning about seizures on the back of it, or tell me that the game's only for sale in the US and I should read my consumer information packet )

I'm hoping to strike a reasonable balance with my WIP template, but we'll just have to wait and see how well I do...

[Misanthroat]

Love the mario & wario and 6-pak cover! It would cool to see Super Hang On and Flicky added to the empty cans on the front and back to have all the logos present. Maybe the back left can on the front and the bottom left can on the back?

6-Pak had Streets of Rage not Flicky...

[BadChad]

Oops my bad, I was thinking of my Genesis tv plug and play. It has 6 games bundles in it and flicky is one of them.