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Thursday, November 4, 2010

a tip for texbook cover designers.

Don't ever feature a smiling kid on the cover.
Actually, avoid any pictures of people on it.

Why?
First, let me ask you.
Do you like studying? 

Your answer is undoubtedly a strong NO. The truth: Everybody hates studying.
And anyone who says they enjoy it, is either...
a) Trying to sound smart
b) Someone who has absolutely no life

Moving on, please imagine this situation.
It's almost 12 in the morning, and you have a big test tomorrow. You forgot about it, and suddenly realized that the test WAS TOMORROW.
You freak out.
So, you sit down at your desk. And take a few deep breaths.
And start to study.
You have your glasses on like a good kid, perfectly sharpened #2 pencil in hand, and textbook flipped open on your desk.
For the first hour everything is going fine. You're cramming Latin words in your head, memorizing statistics, and reciting all the countries in the Northern Hemisphere like a hyperactive-overdosed-on-coffee machine.
But then, suddenly you snap. It might be caused from the overload of caffeine in your bloodstream, one complicated equation, or a entire page of nonstop text. 
You're pissed off.

So you look around for someone or something to take your anger out at.
You look for your parents, but they're already dreaming blissful dreams of their adorable child graduating from Harvard and curing cancer.
You look in the fridge, but close it because there's nothing to eat.
You look at your fish, then think about the salmon you ate for dinner and feel bad for your sorry little goldfish swimming in your sorry little tank.
There's nothing you can do with your anger.

Then you look at your textbook. You close it angrily and stare at the awful thing that is causing so much pain in misery in your life.

Note: I have nothing against the actual content of this. Just the cover. (:



Your eyes focus on the smiling face on the cover.
Suddenly, you're consumed by rage directed at the person on it.

WHY ARE YOU HAPPY? ARE YOU HAPPY AT MY MISERY? WELL YOU'VE GOT WHAT YOU WANTED YOU AWFUL PERSON!

All common sense have flown from your mind, and you end up sitting at your desk filled with uncontrollable hate at this person on your textbook.

What the person did was unforgivable. Smile at your pain? INTOLERABLE.
You resolve to hunt him/her down.
You will not be calm until he/she suffers the same torture that you did.

-----------

So, textbook designers, please don't put people on your covers.
Do you need an example?


This is probably the MOST straightforward cover I have ever seen. And it works. Kudos to Sparknotes.


So for safety of yourself and others, do not put people on your covers. Thank you. <3 Fi

5 comments:

Jodie-Ann Muckler said...

Haha! I totally agree!! Like, in my school, which is English and we were in French class. Most kids hate French since we are being forced to learn it(we live in Quebec) and on the cover was the question "Would You Like To Learn French?" with a smiling kid. And everyone stared at it and said "No." It was hilarious. The teacher was so angry with us since she's French. Good times... lol.
-Jodie

Hanis. said...

Hahahaha, I have a book once with three kids at the cover, studying hard. I would have hated it a lot if it weren't for the fact that those 3 are my cousins. =.= My uncle was the photographer.

Sam said...

hahahahahahahahhaahahahahahahaha-omg that's hilarious (case you couldn't tell by my out of control laughter) um it's been a LONG ass time since I had to study but I do recall hating with all my might the smug looking fu**ers on the covers of my text books. LMAO! Love this post!

Fiona said...

@ Jodie: I LOVE French! It sounds so pretty! (: But I chose Spanish, since my mom said it's pretty useful. x]

@ Hanis: Your uncle takes pictures of people for textbook covers?
That's awesome.
I wish I could do that.
Me: Hey kids, smile, cause you're about to become the most hated kid in the world! :D

@ Sam: Awh shucks, thanks. (:

Hanis. said...

Hahahaha, he takes pictures for many things. Tourism ads and everything. One of my cousin were actually in my school, a year above me and my friends kept coming to me and holding the book

"Hanis, is this your cousin?"