After carrying out research on the original design work and advertisement on 'A Clockwork Orange', then collecting words that described the 'odd' movie and researching similar book cover designs that matched those keywords.
I then began working on my own design.
First I thought of a concept that would communicate the essence of the movie. My key words:
Dark
Old Fashioned
Psychological
Dark empty sounds
Dark music
Slapstick comedy
Dark Humour
Narrative
Sadism
These words created some sort of distorted image in my mind, something good that could possibly be damaged. At the same time I needed to create something that would fit in with the level of design in book cover's around today.
I wanted to make something individual and clear so when a reader looks at the design, they instantly have an idea what the genre of the book is.
After I watched the advert for the movie I got a sense of 'dark humour mixed with dark psychological behaviour'. So I began thinking of images that related to this, until the idea of using a simple smiley face as the main point of interest on the book cover.
Then moving onto ways to relate this to the dark humour and psychological behaviour of the movie. I thought of hand drawing the image in fine pen as if to give the idea of a 'message' which definitely relates to this whole dark theme. The idea of a big impact with little care was what was needed.
.......
Then I needed something to make a statement about the image, so having the idea to tear the image up once it had been created then placing each piece of the image back together to create this 'distorted image'. This was to increase the effectiveness the image had when representing 'A Clockwork Orange'.
Then using various editing tools I was able to manipulate the image to achieve a better suited look. Basing the design on the research carried out on effective book cover designs using black and white, It became easier to manipulate the image to to something that was similar to the effective book cover designs.
Then achieving the perfect look with the image, where the the hand drawing was a sharp and bright white against the black and dark grey background almost gave the drawing torn open look that was somehow being invaded by light, this produced a very effective image which worked well with the the dark genre of Clockwork Orange.
When the image was complete it became easier to work on the positioning and style of the copy text which needed to be placed on both the front and back of the cover including the spine.
When choosing a style of font, it was obvious that because of the design method and general look of the front cover. The text would need to fit in with that somehow.
I had the idea to use a clear font for the 'informational sections of text' and then for the name of the book 'A Clockwork Orange', something which matched the design of the image.
As more cover copy went on the book the overall design began to look more professional and detailed. It became a little tricky when finding good positions to place the required copy because of the harsh black and white contrast in the image made it difficult to find a colour and typeface that wouldn't become lost.
However the best colour turned out to be 'Orange' which worked well with the title of the book and also worked well with the nature of the image.
It became clear after a while that to use text on an image like this, the text would have to work within the image instead of finding someway to avoid it.
When finding a suitable background for the back cover of the book, the best option seemed to be carrying on with the same image, however changing it to the opposite emotion 'A sad face' personally makes opened design a lot more interesting and thought out.
I then took my finished design to the module leader to get feedback.
The feedback I received was good, although I received a few comments on the text on the back cover which was hard to read, so I received some help with positioning and colour. We kept altering and moving the text until the perfect layout was achieved.
I then once again finalised the design and then took it to a few other students on the group for some final feedback. The feedback I received was positive.
I could then scale the image and display an image:
The overall design I feel is a success, even though it became hard finding good placement for the text to fit along side the image, I found that making the text work with the image turned out quite successful.
These words created some sort of distorted image in my mind, something good that could possibly be damaged. At the same time I needed to create something that would fit in with the level of design in book cover's around today.
I wanted to make something individual and clear so when a reader looks at the design, they instantly have an idea what the genre of the book is.
After I watched the advert for the movie I got a sense of 'dark humour mixed with dark psychological behaviour'. So I began thinking of images that related to this, until the idea of using a simple smiley face as the main point of interest on the book cover.
Then moving onto ways to relate this to the dark humour and psychological behaviour of the movie. I thought of hand drawing the image in fine pen as if to give the idea of a 'message' which definitely relates to this whole dark theme. The idea of a big impact with little care was what was needed.
.......
Then I needed something to make a statement about the image, so having the idea to tear the image up once it had been created then placing each piece of the image back together to create this 'distorted image'. This was to increase the effectiveness the image had when representing 'A Clockwork Orange'.
Then using various editing tools I was able to manipulate the image to achieve a better suited look. Basing the design on the research carried out on effective book cover designs using black and white, It became easier to manipulate the image to to something that was similar to the effective book cover designs.
Then achieving the perfect look with the image, where the the hand drawing was a sharp and bright white against the black and dark grey background almost gave the drawing torn open look that was somehow being invaded by light, this produced a very effective image which worked well with the the dark genre of Clockwork Orange.
When the image was complete it became easier to work on the positioning and style of the copy text which needed to be placed on both the front and back of the cover including the spine.
When choosing a style of font, it was obvious that because of the design method and general look of the front cover. The text would need to fit in with that somehow.
I had the idea to use a clear font for the 'informational sections of text' and then for the name of the book 'A Clockwork Orange', something which matched the design of the image.
As more cover copy went on the book the overall design began to look more professional and detailed. It became a little tricky when finding good positions to place the required copy because of the harsh black and white contrast in the image made it difficult to find a colour and typeface that wouldn't become lost.
However the best colour turned out to be 'Orange' which worked well with the title of the book and also worked well with the nature of the image.
It became clear after a while that to use text on an image like this, the text would have to work within the image instead of finding someway to avoid it.
When finding a suitable background for the back cover of the book, the best option seemed to be carrying on with the same image, however changing it to the opposite emotion 'A sad face' personally makes opened design a lot more interesting and thought out.
I then took my finished design to the module leader to get feedback.
The feedback I received was good, although I received a few comments on the text on the back cover which was hard to read, so I received some help with positioning and colour. We kept altering and moving the text until the perfect layout was achieved.
I then once again finalised the design and then took it to a few other students on the group for some final feedback. The feedback I received was positive.
I could then scale the image and display an image:
The overall design I feel is a success, even though it became hard finding good placement for the text to fit along side the image, I found that making the text work with the image turned out quite successful.
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