THANK YOU all for sharing your valuable insights and opinions! Your voices were heard!!

Like all beautiful art work, the images evoked varied responses. Most people loved something about all the images, and a very few expressed extreme distaste with each of the possible covers. What’s most important is that the images did elicit interest and strong opinons.

We collected input from friends, family, co-workers, Twitter and Facebook friends, and a few bookstore owners. Overall the results indicated:

#2 seems a bit to cheery for depressed people and #3 seems a bit too dark for depressed people. That left us with an almost even tie for #1 and #4. Those two images are now back in the hands of Ted Ruybal, our awesome graphic designer, who will now make some changes based on your feedback.

Life is filled with so many great choices!! Thanks to all the fantastic input! Hope to post the final version soon.

Peace & Joy,
Annette

Cheers,
Miche
Miche – Serenity Hacker´s last blog ..Making Big Changes: Energy and Resistance

As stated above by 4P, the second one is too cheery for a depressed person and the third one is too depressing (dark) for a depressed person.

#1: Glowing and illuminous, with an image like real life–a dark “groundscape”, bright and large middle color flow, with a hint of some thing happening in the “sky” suck as clouds. The butterfly seems to be flying through this world…without representing whether it’s flying as a depressed butterfly or someone who’s come out of a reign of darkness.

#4: My coworker liked this one because the colors appealed to her and the art in the butterfly was pretty. I liked this one as a more personal, “friend helping a friend” feel, because of the title in a font that looks like handwriting.

I also liked the art in the butterfly, however, that somehow put me off. Hopefully, I can explain it well enough. Psychiatry and psychology still have the impression on some as negative things, such as twisting our thoughts to suit whatever purpose, a “crazy, mixed up, jumbled mess”, etc. To me this amplifies those attributes and might taint the (likely) helpful messages you’ve put inside. People still judge a book by it’s cover, ya know?
Suzanne´s last blog ..Quote to Reflect Upon (Feb10)

#1 has that warm yellow hue surrounding the butterfly with vibrating reds looking almost like an aura, but with a dark spot in the middle. It is a striking piece. I also like the font. It has a nice contrast against the background making it easy to read the title and your name.

#3 is rich with primary colors for the surrounding and feels energized (even chaotic) with a cool blue butterfly in the middle. Saying to me “chaos can be found everywhere, come and discover your cool blue side…” Still, it feels a bit dark, so I guess it just depends on what you’re aiming for.

#2 seems to be the reverse of #3. Calm blue surrounding with a colorful, warm, uneven butterfly in the middle. Almost pointing out that ‘darkness’ in each of us?

#4 is the art I like the most (with the small, complicated swirling patterns). Very cool. I can’t quite put my finger on why. Interesting how moving the “Ending the Reign of Darkness” part toward the bottom softens the overall feeling. I agree with the other comments in that this is the most hopeful.

Can’t wait til it’s out!