May 11, 2004: New Fourth Edition Covers

And here they are . . . the new covers for the two volumes of the GURPS Basic Set. We based it, of course, on Victor R. Fernandes' winning entry . . . black background, a variety of images in "puzzle" format, and large, modernistic text. Production artist Justin De Witt, aided by most everyone in the office, selected favorite images from the last 15 or so years of GURPS. We even retained Victor's typeface for everything but the GURPS logo itself. The logo was re-rendered in Korinna, which we discovered by experimentation complements both modern and "antique" typefaces . . . it looks very good with the Mason that's used for the titles of GURPS Magic and GURPS Fantasy.

In fact, we like the "puzzle" look enough that it's going to become the signature for the whole line, though we haven't reworked any of the other covers yet. We shall . . . It's a great solution to the problem of "how can we pick one image that tells the whole story?", and it'll stand out from everything else in the stores.

Our renewed thanks to Victor and to everyone else who participated in the discussion and the contest!
-- Steve Jackson

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