New Labels-Concept Design for CBCS518

Originally Posted by VillageIdiot
I do like it as well. However as a former creative director in advertising, i'd pass. Its simply not "Corporate/Business" centric enough, to convey its presence. Its only MY opinion, but you have to truly conceptualize what i'm writing.

Originally Posted by D84
I like it, but would rather the name of the publisher be smaller than the title of the comic.

Originally Posted by VillageIdiot
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Originally Posted by Thanos_of_Titan
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Originally Posted by VillageIdiot
I do like it as well. However as a former creative director in advertising, i'd pass. Its simply not "Corporate/Business" centric enough, to convey its presence. Its only MY opinion, but you have to truly conceptualize what i'm writing.

As a current creative director, I disagree, but that's ok. To me it's about the whole package. It should fit together and look nice. Comics are a visual form of media. Why detract with a bland, weak label.

Well, to answer your last statement; the label should not be that intrusive to begin with. Its the BOOK that matters, not the label. The label should be pleasant to the eye, subtle in its color & presentation, and direct in its purpose. Anything else is simply superfluous

Originally Posted by DarthLego
I like it, I like it a lot. That's a very well designed cover, sleek, modern, and cool without being too flashy. I like matching the color to the publisher. I like the subtle color code stripe at the bottom rather than having the whole label be blue, yellow or red.

I have to admit, I don't like the look of the current red labels, I see a whole bunch of red and my first instinct is something is wrong with the book. If I didn't already know what it means and was seeing a CBCS slab for the first time I would assume restoration was what that red label is used for.

Originally Posted by dielinfinite
My main concern is that you're talking hundreds of different labels to cover each and every publisher cbcs might have to grade a book for. Many are now defunct, some changed names or were absorbed by a bigger company. Then you get into the mess that intercompany crossover and have to represent two, if not three, companies on a label. And would imprints like Vertigo, or MAX be represented somehow as well?

Additionally, many publisher logos throughout the years have simply been black and/or white. So while the examples you gave for Marvel, DC, and Dark Horse would be distinctive enough, of the hundreds of publishere that are and have been, it seems like more than a few would be very similar in appearance.

You also asked why get it graded if you wanted a non-distracting label, well aside from the impartial assessment of it's condition, the grade which is still nicely prominent in hour design, the restoration check has been one of the recurring reasons I have heard. There are already complaints about CBCS' label not indication restoration loudly enough and now that the whole label designation has been even further reduced, I think that problem will only be exacerbated.

There seems to be little space for a general description of the book's condition, which I'm sure there is space for on the back, but that certainly is one of the major reasons people get books graded and should probably be given more focus and space on the front label than it currently is in your design.

Additionally, I certainly don't think people are getting books slabbed because they need a large reminder about who published the comic, which seems to be the main approach of this level design. As big a hobby as comics are, Publishers, as major as they are, seem an almost arbitrary element to make the focus of the label as there may be just as many collections following a specific character, creator, or pedigree that may span several publishers.

Finally, though not quite the same thing, CGC has experimented with creator-specific labels to limited success:





Now it may be that CGC's conditions for getting these labels (I think they had to be at specific, cgc sponsored signings or something) prevented them from really taking off as I've seen very few books, even those signed by these specific creators, for sale, maybe there are too few creator labels to really spark the public's interest, or maybe it could be that the slabbing comminity simply prefers a certain uniformity and prefers certain general elements, signatures and restoration, called out above things like creators or even publishers on a graded label.

All this is not to say that many or all of these cannot be worked out but they'll certainly make widespread acceptance, along with a large helping of "if it ain't broke don't fix it" mentality for the current labeling conventions, of a radical label change like this very difficult.