I will be creating the front, back and spine of a book cover in response to book 'How to be a graphic designer without loosing your soul'. I will need to carry out some research on the content of my book, the theory and the theorist of the book. So i will be creating a book cover based on the message and structure of my book.
To create my own book cover I will carry out some research on 'how to make a book cover, what elements are needed to make the perfect book cover. by exploring my book and using the information within to create an image in my mind as to what my own re design will look like.
I will start by carrying out research on a selection of different celebrated book covers. So I can get a little inspiration and idea before i start designing my own.
Chip Kidd - American Book Cover Designer
I looked at some of Chip Kidd's work http://bookcoverarchive.com/Chip_Kidd and noticed that he has created many different type of book covers, covering a vast amount of styles and colours.I really like how all of his work looks different, there doesn't seem to be a certain trending style throughout his work.
Peter Mendelsund
I really like this designers work, it's quite illustrative, and it reminds me of the work i used to produce in college when responding to various artists work. I also love the repetition this designer uses in his work i think it's really effective when being placed against the publication title.
Jessica Hische
http://jessicahische.is/working
After looking at this artists work I found out that the artist is a illustrator, type designer and freelance designer. I love how this artists matched colours perfectly together along with her illustrations. I personally think her work is very personal. Yet illustrative, the designs still look so ordered and perfect.
Oliver Munday
http://www.olivermunday.com/covers/
To redesign the cover of the book, I had to relate to the message that I had already received from reading the book as well as the original design of the book cover. I would take these elements and apply them to ideas I had gotten from the work by my current favorite book cover designer that I had previously researched (Jessica Hische). Her work is very illustrative and expressive.
Along with this I decided to use ideas from the work of my favorite artist 'Si Sott', I have always been a huge fan of his work and I thought that this brief was the perfect opportunity to strengthen my ability to respond to his designs.
The original cover for the book was very modernistic and 'clean', however personally I found it very boring and dull, maybe a little too minimal and simplistic. It certainly does not suit the title of the book 'How to be a Graphic Designer without Loosing your Soul', I find that the cover for this book comes across quite 'soulless'.
So I then realized that I wouldn't really be able to effectively create my own redesign by following the style of the original cover. So instead I decided to go on the message I personally took from the book 'How to make something of yourself with your expression without loosing yourself just to please others'. Then combining this message with the work of Jessica Hische and Si Scott, I instantly had the idea to create an graphic/illustrative design that would allow me to get the message of this book across.
So i first began with a simple sketch that I would be able to later manipulate and alter on Illustrator and Photoshop.
I could then alter this into a way that would express the message of non conformity and freedom.
So when playing around with repeats of my Si Scott inspired mini design I saw that i was able to position them in a way that produced an image of a 'person' right in the center of the whole design. It was perfect as then i could build on the image of the person with my pattern enough to give the ides that this 'person' on my book cover was showing self expression and emotion..
Once I had completed my design I then moved onto the spine and back of the book which were pretty easy to do. Showing a bar code, ISBN number, a blurb/information of the book, The publishers name and logo, and the repetition of the books title and author. All to give the sense of a professional looking book cover.
When choosing a font to use for all of the text on my design i decided to go with 'Armata regular' it is my favorite font because it is clear, perfect and looks good no matter what size it is. I used this font for my design because my art work is quite illustrative and I wanted to keep the attention on my art work, not so much the text of the book. But by keeping the text clear and important looking, I used this font.
The back of the book I decided to keep modernistic and clear. keeping everything in line to give that sense of professionalism.
Below is the final digital copy of my redesign.
I feel like I have definitely achieved the intention of turning the books message into and image that will be eye catching and informative. I really love how my design has turned out, it is certainly the image that i had in mind from start to finish.
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