August 29, 2005
Mark Boardman is staying at our house for two weeks, working on a special assignment. Today Bob Brink and I took him to Tonto Bar & Grill for lunch and talked to him at length (I had half a cobb, Mark a chicken caesar and Bob Brink shocked everyone by ordering a hamburger, $34 biz account).

I started on my next book project last weekend and feel quite confident about the artwork and story. Also, I’ve been getting great feedback on the CGII poster designs (see August 26, below):

“Mr Bell—Red Poster.”
—Hugh Howard

“I like both of them, but if I had to pick only one I would pick the one on the right (Dan’s design). Have a good day and glad nothing was stolen during the breakin.”
—Scott Bell

“I prefer the brown, busier cover. The red cover catches the eye, but there's not enough to hold it there. The busier cover is more interesting visually.”
—Tom Carpenter

“The busier version is just that, too busy. It distracts from the main action of the largest illustration. The other follows the classic ‘C’ layout so the eye is not initially confused while sending the required signal to the brain.”
—Mike

“I like the not so busier poster best—it's a good one.”
—Bob Reece

“Go with the Red one, but the ‘Blaze Away’ needs to Be HUGE, tucked behind
Wyatt from his shoulder on in a more chewed up, distressed block style font.
I'd kill all the additional pictures along the bottom too, unless you
desaturate them to a nice silvery look and frame them inside the border
under the bottom text with a mask over them that makes them look like
screwed up old photos.”
—Damian

“The red cover is the best.”
—Paul Hutton

“The red one.”
—Emma Bull

“Hard to tell about the posters at the size they are on the blog. I lean to the minimalist one, but would like to see them poster size to see if the other is too busy when enlarged.”
—Charlie Waters

”Art should simplify. That is very nearly the whole of the higher artistic process; finding what conventions of form and what detail one can do without and yet preserve the spirit of the whole.”
—Willa Cather