Welcome!

[Bekaix]

This font of James White for the cover will be great!

[Psycho]

ok - my little try


i'd like to keep it clean and simple (and i thought the meta tags were a solid idea [a different kind of tag cloud])

[mWalk]

What about this?

cover.jpg

I really like this one. That's sort of how I pictured it. Well done.

[hyperdude]

Came up with this cover design... -- cracked up cover with the S logo Piercing through... make th cover concrete looking or smashed brick looking.. the cover done in matte but the logo piercing through would be UV--

here's another one -- the cover looks like a TV screen or old CRT monitor and its cracked and smashed looking but you see the Smashing Mag website burnt into the screen with the logo pushing through and breaking the screen... still done with the Matte cover and UV logo...

That is like almost exactly what I suggested in my topic last night.

I think to make more of an impact, we need a really "smashing" visual on the cover. Sure, simplistic design would make it more VISUALLY appealing if you plan to stare at it for long periods of time, but people DO judge books by their covers.

[sandman8888]

I think the cover should be simple but at the same time have maximum impact . . . I haven't seen it in any of the submitted designs so far . . . I kinda like thomassl's design:
but it lacks punch . . . I also like Igor's but i would get rid of the smashing logo on the bottom right and just incorporate it right into the tag cloud . . . just my 2 cents . . .

[AravindJose]

@Static44
You're true. The content is smashing, then, why go for a plain cover ?!
But, being plain and minimalistic brings a classy and quality aspect to the design. Don't they ?
Everything is just suggestions. Keep them coming.

@Igor
The word cloud idea seems nice.
The font weight and colours could be changed appropriately.

[mjmonserrat]

I have created a new concept. Instead of typography, I used the source code of Smashing magazine home page. See the image below:



the small logo of smashing magazine at the bottom should have a glossy effect in actual cover so that it will stand out among the elements in the design.Below is the concept plotted on a book:

[Bekaix]

Real

[earthwormjim]

These are some excellent design. I hope one of them gets picked.

[mjmonserrat]

Thanks Bekaix for a bright idea to plot the draft into a book so that we can easily visualize what will be the output...

[Monime]

I suggest to make cover with tag cloud as Wordle do.

This is the best yet

[Maexed out Designs]

Like the meta tag idea

[Maexed out Designs]

What font is just for the magazine in the sm logo?

[briannelsondesign]

Thanks for the vector logos; here's another minimalistic version.

smashingBook.jpg (28.73 KiB) Viewed 713 times

[Carl]

Thanks for the vector logos; here's another minimalistic version.

smashingBook.jpg

This is my favourite so far. Perhaps you could try rotating the S, see how that looks. Also, there might be an issue of no explanation on the cover, but I'm sure there wouldn't be a problem of adding a small stripe at the bottom or something.