Idea 1 -
I started designing my cover by using the provided template from Penguin, after adding the required type that the book needs I thought about a general colour scheme for the design. I thought that black and white would be most appropriate as this can also represent the racial equality in the book. To create the feather I used illustrator to draw the feather with the guide of a feather that I used online, I thought this would work better than image tracing the feather it would make it more unique. Rather than making five different feather which would be very time consuming I thought it would be easier to reflect and tree transform the feathers so they don't all look the same. The idea of the placement was also to make them look like the are falling which I feel that I have achieved by having some of them on and off the page.
After some feedback where I asked if there was anyway I could add more colour, it made clear to me that I should represent a single character with a bright colour this character could be left up to interpretation. I also changed the background to a lighter shade of black as I felt that the full black was too strong for a front cover.
Feedback Idea 1 -
For this feedback session wrote down a couple of questions, firstly does the colour of the smallest feather represent the the idea of a key character? I got some very interesting feedback from this...
- The contrast works well to draw the eye and to know there is something special about that particular feather.
- Yes, its obvious that the small feather is meant to represent something else.
- Yes, because it stands out from the rest
- Yes, really subtle design that you maybe wouldn't see until after reading the book or unless it was pointed out
- Yes, however maybe you could look a representing another characters as well
- Very good use of colour and layout, the illustrations fits right in
Question two - Is the typeface used appropriate for the cover, I considered the time the book as set (1930s) to make sure that it fit.
- Yes, it is easy to read and does not take away from the illustrations
- Maybe try Baskerville or Times?
- It works, but it probably doesn't fit for the time, Everything is in sans, maybe look at some serif typefaces.
- Yes, it's both appropriate, effective and appealing
- Clean and clear all the design flows
- Yes, its is a informed decision
- Yes it is effective but the title overlaps the feather and it makes it difficult to read from far
- Yes it is effective, but its is quite hard to read because the feather is white as well. Maybe try the same colour as the other feather?
- Not really. I think it doesn't really go with the background. I might try a serif typeface? Because it is a fiction? But the small caps works well.
- The type is perfectly matched with the delicacy of the letters - all caps, very legible but subtle not in your face.
Any other comments -
- The illustrations really work well and represent the classic book
- Maybe lower the authors name as it looks slightly too high
- The design really works well with the plot of the book
- Gradient on the feather to make letters stand out
- Feather 5 can go behind the barcode
- Type set the the title
- Centre aline all the back text
This feedback has now helped me to pick out what the strongest parts of this cover are and I will now be going through some of the suggestions that people made to me in this crit and any other comments that have been made since. I believe this is my strongest design that could be entered into the Penguin competition as it is ticking the boxes that the judges are looking for.
Idea 2 -
I started with the neutral colour scheme as I wanted to give this cover more a minimal design to try and show how the book could be bought into the present day by using a certain style of design.
Although it does not seem like it but Futura was my chosen typeface for a couple of reasons the first being that the typeface was developed in 1927 making it a popular new typeface at the time of the book being set, so despite what people might think it does fit with the time period. The typeface also fits in with the minimal style that I am trying to achieve with this cover design.
As the front cover type has been left alined I thought it was best to keep the blurb the same as this means that the design would flow better and easier to read quickly. The top and bottom quotes have been made italic because I still want them to stand out from the main text but I didn't want to make them bold as it was too much or the eye at such a small point size.
For this feedback session wrote down a couple of questions, firstly does the colour of the smallest feather represent the the idea of a key character? I got some very interesting feedback from this...
- The contrast works well to draw the eye and to know there is something special about that particular feather.
- Yes, its obvious that the small feather is meant to represent something else.
- Yes, because it stands out from the rest
- Yes, really subtle design that you maybe wouldn't see until after reading the book or unless it was pointed out
- Yes, however maybe you could look a representing another characters as well
- Very good use of colour and layout, the illustrations fits right in
Question two - Is the typeface used appropriate for the cover, I considered the time the book as set (1930s) to make sure that it fit.
- Yes, it is easy to read and does not take away from the illustrations
- Maybe try Baskerville or Times?
- It works, but it probably doesn't fit for the time, Everything is in sans, maybe look at some serif typefaces.
- Yes, it's both appropriate, effective and appealing
- Clean and clear all the design flows
- Yes, its is a informed decision
- Yes it is effective but the title overlaps the feather and it makes it difficult to read from far
- Yes it is effective, but its is quite hard to read because the feather is white as well. Maybe try the same colour as the other feather?
- Not really. I think it doesn't really go with the background. I might try a serif typeface? Because it is a fiction? But the small caps works well.
- The type is perfectly matched with the delicacy of the letters - all caps, very legible but subtle not in your face.
Any other comments -
- The illustrations really work well and represent the classic book
- Maybe lower the authors name as it looks slightly too high
- The design really works well with the plot of the book
- Gradient on the feather to make letters stand out
- Feather 5 can go behind the barcode
- Type set the the title
- Centre aline all the back text
This feedback has now helped me to pick out what the strongest parts of this cover are and I will now be going through some of the suggestions that people made to me in this crit and any other comments that have been made since. I believe this is my strongest design that could be entered into the Penguin competition as it is ticking the boxes that the judges are looking for.
Idea 2 -
I started with the neutral colour scheme as I wanted to give this cover more a minimal design to try and show how the book could be bought into the present day by using a certain style of design.
Although it does not seem like it but Futura was my chosen typeface for a couple of reasons the first being that the typeface was developed in 1927 making it a popular new typeface at the time of the book being set, so despite what people might think it does fit with the time period. The typeface also fits in with the minimal style that I am trying to achieve with this cover design.
As the front cover type has been left alined I thought it was best to keep the blurb the same as this means that the design would flow better and easier to read quickly. The top and bottom quotes have been made italic because I still want them to stand out from the main text but I didn't want to make them bold as it was too much or the eye at such a small point size.
The idea based on my original sketch has changed slightly, the concept behind the pocket watch remains but I have chosen to make it larger and get people to really see what it is and how it could relate to the book. By adding full bleed to the pocket watch, I hoped that it might make people think that if they read the book they will find out how the pocket watch is represented.
Idea 3 -
This idea started as bit of a joke, but the more I thought about the concept a the more the idea made sense but at the same time it does feel a little different. The idea being that the book is told from the child point of view and what better way to show that than a child's interpretation of the cover. To make it look authentic I used basic tools like the pen tool to free hand the writing and the drawing, but going over it to make it look slightly better.
Just having the plain off white cover didn't seem quite right so I added the lined paper as an overlay to make it feel like an old school book from around the 1930's as school was a decent part of the book and education/learning about life is a theme from the book.
After some feedback, it was mentioned that it looked like it was missing something or maybe the design was too plain. So I added the ink splats to make it look like it was a young child's school book rather than just lined paper.
This idea started as bit of a joke, but the more I thought about the concept a the more the idea made sense but at the same time it does feel a little different. The idea being that the book is told from the child point of view and what better way to show that than a child's interpretation of the cover. To make it look authentic I used basic tools like the pen tool to free hand the writing and the drawing, but going over it to make it look slightly better.
Just having the plain off white cover didn't seem quite right so I added the lined paper as an overlay to make it feel like an old school book from around the 1930's as school was a decent part of the book and education/learning about life is a theme from the book.
After some feedback, it was mentioned that it looked like it was missing something or maybe the design was too plain. So I added the ink splats to make it look like it was a young child's school book rather than just lined paper.
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