designing a cover

 

I designed a cover in today's session, from this original image:

 

I added a black back cover from the cover grids set up in week 3, and I used Photoshop to clone stamp some of the starry imagery around where I thought the blurb should be. I tried to turn the different images on angles so it wouldn't be as obvious what I had done, and I think this has been successful.

 

I used the font that I found in the last exercise, and I think that works in practice. I also think the spacing of the author, title and quote works visually.

 

The colouration is particularly effective on this cover, as all of the colours used are picked with a dropper from the original image. I feel that this adds some sense of continuity across the cover.

If I were to change the cover, I would manipulate the title so that it was more inventive. I would possibly experiment with a pink or teal drop shadow, or change the leading. This would make the title stand out more, and also open up opportunities to add different finishes.

Lionheart

In Thursdays session, Ness Wood of David Fickling Books (@wood_ness on twitter) came into the session to talk with the group about the book design process. It was a really exciting talk, and Ness' career has been overwhelming.  Ness also doubles as a book historian, and works with Queen Mary University. 

In the lesson, we were given the hardback cover to Richard Collingridge's Lionheart, which looks like this: 

We were then asked to formulate a different paperback cover, suitable for supermarkets with mass-market appeal. We were given the option of sketching or of using Photoshop and I thought I had better use the time to hone my skills. The illustrations from the book were available on Blackboard, and I had a look through to find a different image with both of the major characters that would be graphic enough to get noticed, and display the excellent illustrations: a major selling point.

pesky birds

I found this one, and I used the lasso tool to cut around the image - which wasn't very easy for a novice like me because of the hairiness of the lion and the trickiness of the birds. I thought the background could be more dynamic and tell more of the story, so I had a look through the illustrations and found the image below. The animals in the book are a main feature of the story, and displaying them more prominently on the cover was important. I like how in this image, the animals are peeking through the wilderness:

I then sought to put the lion over the more exciting background image, and I blurred and blurred and blurred to get rid of any pixel-y problems. I also cut out a few birds from the first image and positioned them so they were flying off the screen, which I thought looked quite hopeful and gave a nice uplifting tone to the image. Choosing an illustration where the lion looks quite sublime was an important factor in the process, because the book is about a child overcoming fear. Evoking that on the cover with the juxtaposition of a small child and a large lion was quite important. I also think that this nods to the original cover, where the two were contrasted in a similar way. 

 

For the final version, I manipulated the contrast, saturation and added a filter so the colours would be quite powerful for added visibility. I also used a similar font to the original cover on my version, but if I were to go back and change anything, I would probably make it bold so it would stand out more on supermarket shelves. The red star - which looks  quite gaudy on the image - symbolises a sticker of some sort. Possibly added by the publisher to show an award the book has been involved with (like being nominated for the V&A best illustrated book), or for the supermarket to place an offer or a price.

I'm really excited that my Photoshop skills are improving, and I'll let you know if I get any feedback on my version of the cover.