Ascent, UK and US
On top, the more subtle UK cover of a novel that poses the question "What if the Soviets sent a man to the moon before the Americans, and we never knew?" Below that, the US version, with far superior type and a really unnecessary hammer and sickle. The placement of it is *so* wrong.
5 comments:
If you're going to force in a hammer & sickle, why not play with using the crescent of the planet as the sickle somehow?
At Anonymous:
Clever idea – seems so much more obvious.
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Couldn't agree more, Joseph. The type treatment is light years (heh) ahead in the second version. Especially with the obvious colour reference…
I have to say, though, I think I prefer the sliver suggestion of earth in the former version. It has a subtler, more eerie quality that reads more as "what if…" But I do like that the type runs over the image in the latter case.
It looks like the Russians took over the North pole in the second version. Santa always did look good in red...
I prefer the sliver more on the UK version. But, if one keeps the Soviet hammer & sickle then wouldn't it be better if it were the moon and not the Earth?
I have to argue for the hammer & sickle. It might seem obvious, but to any uninitiated reader (and without a subhed), the U.K. design is too opaque and uninvolving from a marketing point of view. A crescent of moon: who cares? Next!
However, a crescent of moon plus still ominous Soviet symbol? Suddenly the word "Ascent" becomes threatening to Westerners. Cheesier maybe, but intrigued beats uninvolved.
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