Evaluation

Evaluation


The brief asked me to design a cover for a penguin-type paperback book which has a front cover,back cover and spine , I believe the brief was slightly unclear in terms of design, did we have to design around penguins typical design or were we able to create our own basis but the final piece to contain the penguin logo.  My early ideas were generated from thumbnails and when I created a piece in indesign and further stretched and developed the idea and ive shown this in my blog with notes.


I prioritised my time with my final piece as the final grade is 70% of our final grade, so my research is very basic and minimalist. Although I feel that I have done enough research to compliment my final outcomes. I done most of my research in the LRC pictures taken from books so I believe my research is significant. My research states and justifies my ideas about visual language and typography.


Was unable to print, but I came prepared with spray mount, scalpel and metal rular. Most of the evaluation questions are complimented in my research.

Development and Final piece

This was my first idea, I based this idea on my thumbnail sketches. The images were found on Dafont.com under a greek typeface and worked very well on the cover as they did not pixelate in any way. From my book research I felt the title of the book needed to stand out over everything else on the page and also finding the right colour on the cover. This is where I needed to further develop my work.

I changed the colour of the book and the image, I felt that a brown worked much better than the cream colour I used above. I also changed the colour of the image used on the front cover to give it some more dominance. Putting text inside of a circle resembles strength I felt this was appropriate as Greek mythes and legends are all some what related to being better than someone else and having a strong god like figure. The only negative I had at this stage in my development is the back cover, it looks far to bland and there isnt any consistency with it, this is where I had to further develop my work.

To make my book have some more consistency I made the back page brown to match the other parts of the book, I also added the colour to the spine I think this gives the book a lot more consistency and each section of the book work much better together. I also added a caption review from the Gaurdian just to give the book abit more umph in terms of someone walking into a shop and picking up the book. Having a caption allows the reader to see that someone else has read it and given it a good review this can massively increase the sales perspective of the book.

Here I changed the image on the front cover, the reason I did this is because I think it works much better on the page that the image shown above. The only negative I had about this development piece is that the colour is a bit gloomy and doesent really make the book stand out as the colour is dark. To develop this I experimented with various colours until I found one that suited.

This is my final piece, after experimenting with colour I found this worked really well as a whole and also worked well in compliment to the image. The reason behind making my book jacket two toned is that ancient Greece was all about the Gods, humans and the underworld. The light blue at the top of the page signifies a heroic figure and a more light atmosphere. On the other hand the bottom half of the book is a dark blue this signifies the underworld which was seen as evil and frowned upon. I believe this gives the book some depth and in terms of visual language it gives a slight hint as to what to expect form the book in a subtle way.

I tried to base my design around the design of penguin books, I found penguin books to be very simple and in the classic penguin books they also used a two tone effect with orange and cream similar to what I have done here. Overall im very happy with my design considering the amount of time I had and i really feel that the overall design of the book compliment "Greek Myths and Legends" and really shows this within visual language.

Book Research

Fictional Books

These fictional books were found in the library. 

What I like about this book is the simplicity and also the slight use of the colour orange; I think this adds a nice touch to the book - this is something I will consider using in my piece. The placement of type on the front cover, works really well along side the image, even though the 'BELOVED' type goes over the image it is still highly readable and would still catch the readers attention. The effectiveness of having the authors name (Toni Morrison) in big, bold letters on the front symbolises that their name is just as important as the title of the book. The spine also is just the authors name and the title of the book - this as well gives the book its simple nature. The text on the back cover is centre aligned, and the colour of the text matches the colour on the front of the book - therefore keeping the consistency.

This book is slightly more over complicated, as the image stretches over the whole area of the book - however this may give the reader a better sense of what the book is about. The placement of the title on the front cover works well with the image as the colours match and it doesn't distract from its background. I think the font of the authors name (Joanne Harris), and title 'COASTLINERS' matches the theme of the coast, therefore gives a huge impact of the overall book. Having the shoe in the centre of the font cover gives the reader a sense of mystery as you wouldn't normally get a shoe at a coastline - therefore making them want to know more about the book. The shoe also matches the colour of the title and you can tell that this is the books main feature; this is something that I could consider using when creating my book, as visual communication is key to creating a successful book cover. 

                The spine of the book however is quite simple and just keeps the to title and the authors name, but keeping the same colour as the front cover - keeping the consistency once again. In comparison to the first book 'BELOVED' there is a few images on the back - one of a woman and one that matches the image on the front cover. Having the image of the woman on the back of the book gives you a bit of an insight to what the book is about and gives a cliff-hanger.

This books layout gives a huge insight as to what the book is going to be about as the image covers the whole front cover, back cover and spine. In this case the title is bigger than the authors name and is centre aligned . The colour of the title 'MARCH'  works very well over the brown area, this is where page placement comes in very important . I think the visual language is very strong on this book and it makes the audience want to pick up the book and see what its about - this is something I want my book jacket to have.

This front cover has a border, which most books do not have. The title of this book again is bigger than the authors name, but also some of the words in the title are in capital letters and the other words are not. This gives the impact that the main feature about this book is 'PRINCE' and 'MIST'. The image on the front cover is very clever as you can just see the silhouette of the boy sitting on the rock and the lighthouse in the back ground, giving the feeling that there is a lot of mist. The back cover gives a sense of mystery as the picture is the same as the front cover - however the boy is not sitting on the rock. The text is centre aligned and matches the consistency of the book. It also starts with the date1943 in big, red numbers - this was during the second world war and many people when they saw this date would know this, therefore being quite important.

I like this book because there are only two colours used - black and white. However it does not make the quality and effectiveness of the book any less, even though it is very simple. The authors name is bigger than the title on the front cover of this book. On the top right of the page it says that this book is a really good book, therefore when the reader sees this they automatically see that quite a few people have read it and liked it. The back cover of this book has the same colours of the front cover, therefore keeping the consistency again - however this book has more writing of the back than any of the other book | have written about, giving the reader a bit more insight as to what the book is about.

The image on the front cover of this book is very clever as it has a frost like feel to it, and a bit misty - this goes with the title well as it is called 'THE ICE QUEEN'. The colour of the title could symbolise anger, rage, blood etc, and having the dead trees in the back ground with no leaves on them give a sense of a chill. The authors name seems more dominant that the title of the book. The spine of the book again just has the authors name and the title - using the same colours. The image runs through on to the back cover, keeping the consistency. The first paragraph on the back is a review about the book and is in red writing so it stands out, meaning that they want the reader to read this first.

The title of this book 'PANIC' symbolises that this book must be quite scary - especially because it is red as well which also symbolises anger, rage and blood. The way panic is aligned in the middle of the page in big, bold letter gives a huge impact. Also because of the way panic is designed it looks like blood splatters coming off of the letters giving you an insight as to what the book is about. Although it is quite simple is is very effective. Again on the back cover the text is centre aligned and is shown in a light colour so that the black and the red writing stand out. The red writing again is reviews about the book so it needs to stand out so that the reader notices it first and reads it first.

The main feature I like about this book is the blurb - it is normally found on the back page, but in this case is  found on another attachment to the back page. The back page is extended by about 12 cm which folds over the inside of the back cover, this leaves more space on the back for images like this book has done. I think this is quite a nice feature if done correctly. Im not sure I would want to try this idea because of the short space of time I have to do it. Otherwise it would be a good idea.

In conclusion I found fictional books to be heavily image and and type based. The visual language of the book plays a massive role as the it entices the audience to pick up the book and see what its about. The type also plays a very big role as the colour, size and font all provide visual language and give the reader ideas as to why the title is how it is. I also found that the blurb on the back page of the book is in most cases centre aligned and at a point size no higher than 12.

The research of these books have really helped me into the overall design of books and how the use of images and text make someone pick up the book and be interested in it. A nice touch to some of the books above were; quotes from people or magazines giving a review or opinion on the book, this is something I will consider when making my own book - this feature makes the audience more likely to pick up the book if its been giving a good review from someone or something of higher ground.

Non-Fiction Book Covers

http://bookcoverarchive.com/genre/nonfiction/2

These book covers are all non-fiction.

 I think these book covers are all very boring. They are all very heavily text based along with some colour - in my opinion they all look very formal and none of them really have any creative design. Reason for these books being very formal looking may be because they are based on real life stories which are true. What I can take from these front covers is that type, style and size of type are very important in non-fictional books.

These books have used more images than those above but are still very formal and minimalist and again quite boring. The books do have a link between the text and image used and the colour is concise. Choosing a font for my book will be very important as it needs to compliment the simplicity of the overall book. The effect I get from the books shown from non-ficiton is that they are quite boring and minimalist. With my book design I dont want this typical effect I want to throw in some effect that a fiction book had.

These books here again have a lot of text and very few images, even the ones with images are very simple and minimalistic. What I like about these books however is the consistency throughout, and how everything fits well together. The text in these books are all different and in different places - but it works well with each individual book - text placement is very important as this is one of the main things that draws the readers attention to the front cover of the book.

In comparison to fiction and non-fiction books based on my research above I found non-fiction to appear much more boring, the colours used are more bland and they are very heavily type based. The thing I do like about non-fiction books is that in some cases the simplicity is better than a over filled crammed page (sometimes less is more). Although I am designing a non-fiction book I would like the overall outcome to look a lot more exciting than your average non-fiction book.

Fiction books on the other hand are a lot more interesting to look at. Most of my fiction books shown above use an image in some form, this gives the reader insight as to what the book is going to be about and gives the audience a form of cliffhanger making them pick up the book to read the blurb. The only similarity between the 2 types of book is how the use of text has been used in terms of visual communication. Each individual book conveys a message and feeling through type. I think the fictional books type are much more creative and a lot more eye catching compared to the non-fiction books, non the less they both give messages through type.

Main features that make a successful book jacket :

• Font
• Images
• Colour 
• Page placement
• Font size
• Consistency 

Choosing a font is key to a book cover as I have said above, getting the font right or wrong will make or break the design of my book. Another thing to consider when designing my book is that there may be a few various types of font and will be used differently for example; my blurb text will be much different compared to my title as they both have different intentions. The font will convey the feel of the book and the genre will change this effect for example; the book 'PANIC'  is a horror genre book so the red blood effect on the book really gives that point across

The use of images give cliffhangers about a book and give the reader an insight as to what the book is about, in some cases images dont always have to be used as the effect of the type is enough. This is something I will definitely take into consideration as I do not find out what my Genre is of my book untill 25/1/2012 . Finding an image in this short space of time may be difficult and waste time.

Colour is also important in terms of visual communication also as each individual colour can convey a different message for example;

Blue : Youth, truth, peace, water, energy and cool

Red : Anger, action, blood, warmth, vitality and love.

Yellow : Bright, vibrancy, clarity, joy and happiness.

Purple : Magic, royal, mystery, secrecy and inspiration.

Page placement is another feature that will make or break my book jacket. Placing things such as the title, authors name and images are all key as they each have different jobs to do so placing them in the right place is important as they need to compliment the reason they are on the page. Another thing I need to consider is the space to leave at the edge of the book. My book images shown above leave around a 2cm gap , the reason for this I believe is that it makes the book look more professional and neater.

Font size plays an important role as increasing or decreasing text can take away its overall effectiveness on the page. Type such as the blurb would not be any bigger than a 12pt size as its on the back and does not need to stand out and only has to be readable. The title on the other hand will need to be much bigger as it is going to be one of if not  the main feature on the page therefore this immediately needs to catch the audiences eye. The authors name is sometimes just as dominant as the the title but will often have a different font as there is no link between the two.

Keeping the books consistency will overall give the books total effect, simple things such as matching colours with images, keeping the types of font the same within context as well as the alignment. Consistency is what keeps the front cover, spine and back cover together and gives the visual language of the book. If the book is not kept concise the audience are not likely to pick up the book as there is not any clue as to what the books aim and reason is.