Studio Brief 01 - Responsive - TKAM - Ideas

To help me start thinking of ideas and how I might be able to create a cover for To Kill a Mockingbird I decided that I would create a mind map of 3/4 of the main themes that run through the book at are most impactful, this might then give me some imagery to work from to start designing. 

Racism - 

• In america in 1930s
• Most people looked down on black people, specially the Ewells and Cunninghams 
• Slavery?
• Racism not considered a bad thing

Coming of age -

• "Hold your head high and keep your fists down" - Atticus Finch 
• Innocence into adulthood 
• Blinded by the innocence of being a child 
• "Everything expect algebra" Scouts way of saying she's grown up emotionally

Good vs Evil - 

• Scales 
• Two sides
• The people of Maycomb are evil
• Black and white 
• Atticus (good) 

Mockingbird - 

• Never kill a mockingbird
• Innocence
• Feathers, bird
• Key characters can be symbolised as mockingbirds  

Rough Sketches - 

Using my notes from the mind-map it became easier to start sketching ideas would be well informed rather than trying to come up with concepts that just "look nice" and have very minimal design decisions. By sketching ideas first it also help me think more abstractly, as I am not limited my knowledge of creative suite. 

Concentrating on a single piece of imagery is something that I wanted to try and do with this brief as this would help focus the idea more on the concept behind the design just as much as the design. The idea for this design is based on the running theme of mockingbirds representing the idea of innocence, thus to kill a mockingbird is a sin. Through out the book a number of characters can be identified as mockingbirds. I have symbolised this by using five feathers to represent these characters innocence. At this point I am still thinking about what would be an appropriate typeface to use, but I am thinking of using a typeface that was either made or heavily used in the 1930s America. 

Although the design looks very silly and childish, this is the concept that I am trying to create. As book is told from a child's prospective I wanted to try and show this through childish handwriting and drawings, when this is make through creative suite it will be easier to understand the style of the cover.

As the book has been set over a number of years the imagery of a pocket watch is able to capture this and it resembles how things change over time, whether thats the growing up of Scout and the other children or the development of the court case with Tom Robinson. The pocket watch is also featured in the book as one of the items that is found in the knot in the tree, so this idea has a double meaning, hopefully making think twice.