37 thoughts on “Judge a Book by Its Cover”

  1. i like the cover! Picture looks well. Personally Im not sure about the font of “sweet”, something more sweet and lucious looking perhaps? Not that I know! 🙂

  2. I agree – it looks great, but the “SWEET” doesn’t convey this, as it’s red (suggesting spice/heat). I can see it shows strawberries but something else could be better. It may be best to just use a plain white font rather than messing about with inlaid pictures. Otherwise great!

  3. Looks awesome guys! Can’t wait to read it! Have made the oreo ice-cream about 6 times since the initial test now! 😉 Will we see you at the Food Bloggers brunch?

  4. De-lurking to say that I really like it, although I’d have to agree with Cian on the font colour for ‘Sweet’. The ice cream looks delicious though, which is the main thing 🙂

  5. Is this design your final/only option? Also, is it just me or does the photo seem a little bit dark? I can understand why they’ve added the red (our eyes are naturally drawn to, and focus on, the colour red) but I wonder if they could tweak it a bit more? Because for me, it doesn’t quite convey your personality; in the same way that your own photos on your blog have done in the past.

    It just doesn’t tell me who you are, and what sweet things I’m going to discover inside. I love three photos from your blog’s banner: the second from the left better communicates and celebrates sweet things to me: the second from the right beautifully illustrates where you are; and the first photo from the right tells me who you are, and conveys a quirky and sophisticated personality.

    I don’t know who you are marketing your book towards (will Irish people turn away from an Irish-looking book?) but if I saw either of the second two photos I mentioned, I’d be curious as to know the story surrounding the recipes and therefore more curious about the recipes. If I was picking your cover, I just wish your design could somehow include your landscape and shop, because it goes without saying that your recipes are delicious, but the other two aspects make you so unique.

    Best of luck !

  6. ooooo fantastic but I agree on the word sweet, could you make the word up out of scoops of ice cream and pieces of cake and the like?? I think that’d be great but I’m a girl and it sounds cute to me but maybe not for everyone?!?!?!?

  8. It’s very “clean”, perhaps almost too spartan. I recognize that the blue seems to be your signature blue and I think it incorprates your logo well, but something in the background behind the ice cream might be nice. I do think “SWEET” pops out nicely.

  9. its looks great .. although i feel there is something not working with the font of the title and the font of “murphys” ? am i the only one ?
    also the “sweet” is not quite working ..

    i am no expert but i do love your site and ice cream is my main food group.. and no matter what the cover is like i am going to be buying your book .. cannot wait 🙂

  10. Thanks, everyone! That’s so helpful. They have sent it to me for feedback, which is why I asked you (and would be happy for any further thoughts). The book will be mostly marketed in Ireland, although it will be on Amazon… And yes, Deborah – I’m in.

  11. Hi, my husband and I looked at the mock-up and honestly the ones you made up and showed a while back were much more pleasing to the eye. What’s gonna be more tantalizing, a big beautiful close up of what you do ..the ice cream cone…or a cover that’s more crowded with text and strawberries etc.
    Just our opinion, (My husband does graphic design for a living and he himself said the new one wasn’t as nice as the old one.)
    Man I feel kind of bad, Never want to be a person to just say negative things etc. But since you asked for opinions and if there’s time for y’all to make it the best that it can be then I figure y’all should get that opportunity.
    I know that it’s easy for people to throw around their own ideas etc but I honestly liked the old mock-ups you showed much better. O.k., ummm..I absolutely love reading your blog. The recipes make me drool and have been very delicious when I tried a couple.
    (always end on a positive note, haha)

  13. Hi there! Am a new reader of your blog — love it though! Can’t wait to get a copy of your book over in the states and review it on my ice cream blog — let me know when it is available — of course, I am sure I will read when it is available on your post…LOVE the image, think that the text doesn’t balance so well…its a little close to the top and maybe could be smaller. I love the strawberries against the blue. I like the overall simplicity and like lorraine, think that the simplicity really lends to the freshness…

    Would love to see the “other” covers that Tracey speaks of….

    Don’t love the inlaid image in the word sweet — too busy, and as An Fear Bolg says, seems to convey “hot” to me as well — looks like chili peppers to me…

    But overall, I think it looks good and am SOOOOOOOO excited to see it in print — the whole book, I mean!

    P.S. Despite my site’s appearance, both I and the other writer of our blog are print graphic designers by trade — we just have yet to motivate on the DESIGN of the site — we have both been so busy getting excited about ice cream and the newness of blogging that we haven’t yet invested time in the design of the site — shame on us!

  14. I didn’t care for the SWEET font either–I thought it might be organic chocolate or something, maybe I was just thinking of chocolate because when I think of this blog, so many of your fantastic recipes are of the chocolate nature.. Good luck on the book, really looking forward to reading it.

  15. just one more scoop–ha ha… in looking over some of the Archives, your chocolate ice cream pictures are fantastic, are you sure you don’t want chocolate ice cream on the cover???:) Your Oct 8 and Sept 15, 2007, chocolate pictures are just exquisite. Just a thought.

  16. i think the image is fine but i agree with all the comments on the “sweet” concept. nice idea but it doesn’t really pan out, i think it might be better with just red type. my personal issue is that the type block just doesn’t balance well, it tilts right visually. it feels (even though technically it may not be) as if your names do not align properly with the title, and because the murphy’s logo has the embellishment of the “M” aligning on the left, it seems to knock it off center. those are little tiny tweaks but the kind that catch my eye (but i work in a type heavy business). i would like to see all of the type slightly heavier…but that’s more a personal pref. than a design problem.

  17. I would have said to get your faces on the cover with a picture of the two of you eating ice cream outside your shop. That’s probably a bit cheesey I guess. To be honest, the cover doesn’t do much for me. I’ll def be buying your book regardless but if I hadn’t heard of you, I’d probably just walk past it. I think your own blog pics are better!!!

  19. Hi Kieran
    Congratulations on the wonderful achievement of having a book published.
    I hate to add to somewhat negative feedback but…….The little scoop of ice cream does nothing to convey your luscious offerings. It looks almost diet like. You have so many sexy photos of ice cream, and they say sex sells, because it does. The semi melting ice cream in close up cones that you did before would be great. As for the name, it’s fine. But I think something like “Murphy’s big book of sweet little things” might work, or something along those lines.
    Best
    Val

  22. Just to add more of the same…

    I much preferred your earlier mock-up pics: icecream melting ever so slightly as if it were a hot summer’s day – very evocative (and, as Val says, sexy), whereas the little scoop shown above doesn’t do much for me, it’s just kind of sitting there. It really needs a cone, or could they work in one of your branded icecream cups with the title?

    The ‘sweet’ treatment just looks out of place – as others have mentioned.

    Having said that, I like the fact that they’ve used the ‘Murphy’s Icecream blue’ for the background.

    I’ll definitely be buying it whatever it looks like though!

  24. Hey Kieran!

    I thought your original mock ups were really great! But if you do decide to go with the one above, can you do me a favour and centre the scoop….its the kind of thing that would keep me awake at night!!!!!

    Hope everyone is doing well in Dingle! Give my love to all!!

    Hope to see you soon

    K

  25. love the signature blue.

    like most others, SWEET isn’t doing it. color and font aren’t “sweet.” although i like having a picture embedded as the font color. just not the strawberries. maybe if you had the word sweet in more of a script font and it looked like it was written with chocolate?

    the picture isn’t decadent enough. i agree with some others who say it looks rather diet-y. strawberries could stay but maybe if they were dipped in chocolate? nothing says “kieran” like chocolate, right?

  26. Hi Kieran! So so very excitig about your book! For me it is the shade of blue that looks funny. The one you used in one of your earlier posts really reflects the colour of your blog (the book cover with the ice cream cone). Also I agree with one of the first commenters about the banner pictures being much more “who you are”. They brought your site a very professional quality, the same kind of banner would be nice as a border at the bottom for example. It would really tell us what/who is inside without giving away to much.

  27. Actually, I prefer the previous title ‘Ice Cream Ireland’. Or what about ‘Book of Sweet Indulgences’?

    What about displaying the ice cream on a plain white square porcelain plate, with deco such as choc sauce, fruits etc?

  28. I agree with the sweet font issues noted above. Perhaps the font could match the Murphy’s font and the “tails” of the letters could overlap the rest of the title a bit? It currently looks a little sterile with everything not touching – and I know I don’t know you – but it doesn’t really feel like you (based on your pictures, etc on this site). I am really looking forward to the book and will purchase it regardless, but this cover is a little “meh” to me.

  30. I’m not sure I love it. Like others have said the sweet needs to be tweaked, but I also think the blue isn’t really working. I agree with some of the others that have said the pictures in your banner are a far better representation. I’m also one of the ones you liked your own mock up better

  31. I like almost everything else here except the font of the Murphy’s. Other than that, I think it catches the eye, is pure and elegant yet tasty. I am from Scandinavia (and looking forward to be able to buy the book online) so maybe that’s the reason I’m not fond of having more pictures of the landscape etc. I think you can tell your story within the book but here it’s all about the delicious ice cream. Sweet can be red, but maybe without the inlaid picture of strawberries. The scoop could be in a cone instead of this not so appealing glass bowl.

    I haven’t seen the previous pictures but I agree that the cover should be ‘you’. I hope you can find a solution that you can identify with.

  32. Congratulations on getting this far with your book. I study design and photography in college and am in the process of creating a foodie book myself for my final year project. To be honest don’t think this image is tantalising enough. When I look at your blog I often feel hungry when looking at the images but this one just doesn’t get my tastebuds going at all. I think the image should be more seductive and should take on a larger proportion of the cover! Think this design looks a bit dated to be honest. Anyway, hope you can come up with something that reflects the high quality of you goods and seductiveness of your recipes! Goodluck!

  33. Hi Kieran, congratulations on getting the book published. Can’t wait to get my hands on a copy. About the book cover I was looking back through your previous entries on the blog and found this earlier mock up which I thought was better..http://icecreamireland.com/2007/12/04/manuscript-away/
    It certainly would catch my eye a bit more, but then the book is not just about ice cream is it?

  34. Lovely cover, but the font they use for the word “sweet” is… just… not right. Stick two fonts, don’t use more. Only one scoop of icecream? More, pls. Can’t wait to buy it, though.

  35. Dear Sean&Kieran,
    First of all, thanks for sharing your receipes online – that’s how I actually came across your blog and it’s also the reason why I ordered your book today from Ireland.

    Got so inspired by the photographs on your Icecream Blog receipe page…and when I saw your book cover above, I knew I wanted to hold this book in my hands for 2 reasons: to make finally more use of my icecream machine and to complete my book collection.

    As for the cover itself:
    Heavenly icy-blue with a pinch of tempting red + clean white print & a scoop of THE ESSENCE….this combination suggest subconsciously “Sweet tempting heaven on earth”. It’s simply eyecatching hot n’ makes sure, you know what it is all about: SWEET.
    Wouldn’t change a thing!
    Cheers from Bavaria,
    Angie

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