The University of Gloucestershire hold some competitions and
work experience in house, one includes the ‘First Story book cover
competition’. This involves 4 different school who have a select group of
students who all write pieces of creative writing which then get published in a
book, and sold at the Cheltenham Literature festival. Each school come up with
a title for their publications and it is our job to design a cover for them,
which the students then shortlist and choose which cover they would like to
represent their book, that then gets printed and sold, at the festival. This is
a great opportunity to complete a live brief to a finished standard, to
interact, to present your artwork and to take advice and critic from the
students, and then if you are fortunate enough see your work printed and
available for the public to buy.
Book Cover Design 1
I have chosen to have a go at designing two book cover
designs. One of the titles is ‘Once Upon a Place’. Part of the brief I was
given is below.
“We hope to provide a
trail at the back of the book showing the places in Gloucestershire where the
pieces are set.”
“We are a group of
14-16 year old students who are not currently in school because we are recovering
from illness or operations.”
“We have been coming
together in inspirational spaces to write, for example Sudeley and Manor By the
Lake. We have been using our own experience as well as our imagination to write
short stories or parts of stories. We have used different spaces as inspiration
for our settings.”
“We have made friends
through the group and have laughed a lot.”
“One piece of writing
by each student will be accompanied by a photograph by University of
Gloucestershire Photography students who have responded to the writing.”
“Once Upon a Place
-which reflects that
fact that we have been creating stories, or bits of stories in which place is
important”
So to summarize I am required to create a cover which
reflect/represents places in Gloucestershire where these children either wrote
in or near, or which inspired their writing.
I began this task by initial writing down my thoughts and
breaking down the title seeing if I could grasp any inspiration from that, as I
wanted to intertwine the text/title in with the imagery, so they wouldn’t look
like two completely separate things.
Below is a list of these thoughts and my first reactions.
Once Upon a Place
·
Once upon
a time
o
Fantasy
o
Castles
o
Princes
o
Princesses
o
Dark
forests
o
Turrets
o
Towers
o
Imagination
o
Magical
·
Common
buildings- able to associate and identify
o
Flats
o
Houses
o
Schools
o
Bungalows
o
Hospitals
o
Shops
o
Churches
o
Mansions
o
Halls
o
Gate ways
o
Roads
Transport- then connects all of the
different places together
Cars
Buses
Walking
Bikes
Taxis
Limos
·
Maps= the
fantasy element
·
Navigation
o
Compasses
o
Directions
o
Paths
o
Roads
o
Trees
o
Map
symbols
o
Lakes
o
Rivers
When I started to break down the title I realized that it
this title could be a little changing as I first associated the phrase “Once
Upon A Place’ with the term Once upon a time, which suggests a fantasy theme, a
world full of the imagination, with castles, forest and towers. But when I then
referred back to the brief it mentioned places around Gloucestershire where the
children had visited for inspiration such as Sudeley Castle and Manor by the
lake, which made it a little confusing to connect the title with what the
pieces of text would be about, as I wasn’t able to read any. Therefore, I
decided that somehow I would need to combine a fantasy element with real places
in Gloucestershire, so I began to draw out some rough thumbnails, which are
below.
I initially decided to design a map for the front cover
which could be then extended to the back cover if needed. The map would include
small icons of the different places the children visited, combined with some
imaginary elements such as castles and mountains and some geological icons like
rivers trees and roads to connect everything together. The problem I had was
that I was only provided with 2 places where the children visit which wasn’t
enough to fill the map, therefore I had to add in lots more ordinary and fantastical
places to fill in the spaces.
I had started by drawing out each place and then tracing the
shapes individually which made up each drawing, which I then scanned in and
using Photoshop added colour and texture to. However, I found that when I
started putting the icons onto the map the detail was getting lost as the icons
needed to be fairly small in order for the overall image to look like a map,
meaning that it was looking too busy. Instead I removed the map and began
messing around the places by placing them in lines present a street. Even
though I had lost the map idea the image was working a lot better as you could
clearly see what the images are, as the cover size is quite small (198mm deep x
129mm wide + 3mm bleed). I did find
however, that I needed a few more elements to fill in the gaps, so I drew some
generic flats, houses, and stylized trees, and a few cars which I then places
in a separate row in the center to add another dimension and interest to the
illustration.
I found choosing colour combination quite difficult as I
like to use a limited pallet but use texture to achieve multiple tones, but I
had to find a gender neutral colour scheme most people would be satisfied with,
so I conducted some internet research.
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Madincrafts.com. (2017). MAD WRITING SKILLS: Color Scheming. [online] Available at:
http://madincrafts.com/mad-writing-skills-color-scheming/ [Accessed 6 Mar.
2017, 18:04].
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#2750, C. (2017). Color Palette #2750. [online]
Color Palette Ideas. Available at: http://colorpalettes.net/color-palette-2750/
[Accessed 6 Mar. 2017, 18:10
|
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Design Seeds. (2017). [online]
Available at: http://design-seeds.com/index.php/search/category/creatures
[Accessed 6 Mar. 2017 18:08].
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By conducting this research, I found that most gender
neutral combination nearly always consist of the primary colour which have been
slightly adapted, so I decided that this is what I would do to create a
slightly different primary colour scheme. My colour scheme is below.
 |
| Colour swats creating using Adobe Photoshop |
For type I wanted to trail out a few different types I
wanted a type which was quite modern and looked like it could have been hand
written but still could be read with ease, below are a few examples.
I found the fonts on this website called 'Dafont'- http://www.dafont.com
I chose the second experiment which is entitled ‘Om Telolet
Om’ because I felt that it had a loose, soft stroke to it which gave it a
handwritten feel, which can be easily read and had a fantasy style to it, but
doesn’t look to like the Disney font which number 3 does.
Below is my final cover design, once I had completed it I
thought that it may be a nice idea to give the clients some colour chose, as I
was still concerned that this could be a big factor in the decision making.
Therefore, I flattened the image and using the hue and saturation tool on
Photoshop, and experimented with different colours, below are the colour experiment
which I presented as options to the clients.
 |
| The original colours |
 |
| A colour experiment |
What I have learnt?
From completing the designs for this brief I have learnt how
to interpret the brief and link it to the title even if the message being
presented is little confusing or a little misleading. I have learnt how to
clearly compose a book cover, where the text is cleverly intertwined into the
image so it looks a like a complete image, and have completed some type
research so my collection of type has grown. I have learnt by conducting
research about gender neutral colour combinations, and how that most of them
evolve slighted altered primary colours. I have also learnt how to correctly
set up a Photoshop file to the correct size with accurate bleed dimensions.
Aims
After completing this design, I hope to complete another
book cover design, print both out to see if the colours match what I have on
the screen and tweak any that do not and present my cover designs to small
groups of clients, to take on board and adapt my covers to their suggestions
and take on board construction criticism.
Book Cover Design 2
This is the brief I was given for my second ‘First Story’
book cover, entitled ‘A Flock of Words Takes Flight
‘We are a group of 13-16 year old students
who stay behind after school voluntarily for creative writing workshops. We
write short pieces of poetry and prose.’
‘We like the idea of words being ordinary,
but collectively they can take off and become something different/amazing.’
I found that this title was more descriptive than the last
which meant that is was easier to interpret, understand and visualize, but more
difficult to make unique in comparison to other people’s ideas as it is very
direct and literal. Therefore, I started to brain storm a few ideas, which are
stated below.
A Flock of Words Takes Flight
·
Flock
o
Birds
§
Branches
§
Leaves- feathers as leaves
§
Different kinds of birds- tropical, British,
birds of prey
§
Wings
§
Origami birds
o
Sheep
o
Cows
o
goats
o
A group of things- collective- togetherness
o
A crowd
·
The actually words taking flight
o
In the shapes of wings
§
Origami wings
o
The birds taking flight a group of them
Although I had conducted some research and found as many
possibilities of what animals and things that are categorized in groups as ‘flocks’
such as goats, sheep and cows, none of them actually fitted with the ‘flight’
part of the title so I had no choice really I had to stick with birds. However,
I wanted to try and be a little more original so I thought I could create
origami birds and use text from the clients writing to build up the shape.
Obviously to start with I didn’t have their text so I just repeated the title
to build up a pattern. Below are a few thumbnail designs I tested out.
From my thumbnail designs I intended to have 3 birds to
represent a crowd, 2 of whom are sitting on a branch, whilst the third, much
larger than the rest is taking flights. I want to integrate the text into the
imagery so I will have the text trailing up the branch, taking off with the
bird so it looks like the text forms part of its tail, which will hopeful
enable me to illustrate the title with both the text and imagery
simultaneously. I also thought for another subtle, almost secretive element
would be to instead of drawing leaves falling from the tree I would draw
feathers, which when you think about it form a similar shape to leaves, which
would be subtle enough that you wouldn’t be able to tell from a far but could
close up.
I wanted to see how origami birds were actually constructed,
rather than trying to guest and draw them from member, so I undertook some
research looking into origami birds, below are the images I tool inspiration
from.
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vineetkaur. (2017). vineetkaur. [online] Available at:
http://vineetkaur.tumblr.com/post/26131099674 [Accessed 6 Mar. 2017. 20:49].
|
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Etsy. (2017). [online] Available
at: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/201276568/?ref=sr_gallery_9&ga_search_query=origami&ga_page=8&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery
[Accessed 6 Mar. 2017 20 :53].
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papercut, W. (2017). White origami bird A4 papercut.
[online] Etsy. Available at:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/93429000/white-origami-bird-a4-papercut [Accessed
6 Mar. 2017].
|
So after looking for some inspiration and drawing out all of
the components I needed, which I have pasted below.
I then constructed and coloured my illustrations in using
Photoshop. As I had already completed some research on gender neutral colours
so I knew that by tweaking primary colours slightly I would hopefully achieve a
colour scheme the majority liked. The Colours I chose are below.
Once I had placed my origami birds and feather shapes on the
page I felt that the definition of the birds’ form was lost and that more
detail needed to be added to the feather so that they looked more like feather
than leaves. So I then took a pieces of layout paper and placed them over my original
drawings and drew a really rough sketches over the top. Both the birds and the
feather I drew a more realistic version of them, which meant that when I
layered it over the top of my origami shapes the whole things looked more
believable and recognizable. Below is my finished cover design for the title ‘A
Flock of Words Take Flight’.
Once again I wanted to give my clients options, and provide
them with a list of things that I could potentially change, should they want to
choose my design. I flattened my image and using Photoshop tried to try out
different colour schemes, but didn’t really find one which worked as well as my
original choses, so instead I changed the branch colour originally it was white
but because I had used textures could see subtle pale tone, but I then darkened
the branch, which I think does work equally well, it’s just personal
preference.
What have I learnt?
From completing this brief, I have learnt how to take a
brief title which is rather literal and invent a not so obvious response to it.
I have learnt that by brainstorming and by word associating I can formulate
more creative interpretations/ideas, which will then hopefully make my work
stand out from other entries.
Aim
My aim now is to print of both book covers to scale onto cartridge
paper to a professional standard, which I will then use to present my ideas to
the students. As from past experience with this competition you don’t get a lot
of time to talk to the student so in preparation I plan to practice what I am
going to say, and write down some key points, answering questions such as: What
was your inspiration? Why have you chosen this idea and the reasons behind your
decision?
Presentations
I presented both covers to the students, in groups we
rotated around different groups of students each time presenting our covers and
ideas to them.
Presentation 1- ‘Once Upon a Place’
There weren’t many entries for the cover ‘Once Upon a
Place’, and equally not many students. The students were aged around 16,
meaning that they were very interactive, asked many questions, and were really
engaged with our work. I had presented a couple of colour examples to the
students, to see what they preferred. Like myself, the students were torn
between the colours, and each student had a different opinion, but they did
comment that on the print out on some of the colour variation that the white
didn’t always stand out so clearly, something I hadn’t picked up. So for next
time I will ensure to print out the covers beforehand to check how the colours
look next to one another, and perhaps chose a white paper to print on rather
than off-white which I had done. They seemed to like the style of the
buildings, the text font and how I had integrated the title and text into the
imagery. The students did give me the suggestion of illustrating building and
places of where they were inspired to write, which would make the cover more personal
and relevant to their writing, rather than them being just random buildings.
I felt that during the short conversation I had had with the
students I had presented my ideas fairly confidently, and answered their
questions that had about colour, and how freely the design could be changed thoroughly.
After the first presentation was over my second one became easier feeling more
confident, relaxed as I knew what to expect, and what questions may be asked.
Presentation 2- ‘A Flock of Words
Takes Flight’
I was more prepared for this presentation I knew what to
expect, and had double checked that the colours of my print out was to a good
standard, on the cartridge paper.
This was a much larger selection of entries and more
students to present too, meaning that our pitches needed to be extremely short
and direct. Because of this I only received a few comments, most of them were
positive but an overall comment was that most people had chosen illustrate
birds, which is what the title suggests, but from what the students told us
they may have been looking for something a little outside the box. The students
seemed to like the covers illustrating more obscure ‘flocks’, such as human
wings, butterflies and astronauts. However, that said they liked how I had
included the text in the image and seemed to enjoy my use of origami and
natural looking birds.
In comparison to my other pitches I felt a lot more
confident, I had once again planned what I was going to say, meaning that my
pitches were concise, direct and included all of the explanation and
information I thought was needed. The students were younger than the other
students I had pitched too, they were much quieter and reserved so not many
questions were asked, so it was really difficult to gage what their thoughts
were.
What I have learnt
From this experience I have learnt the importance and power
of presenting and discussing your work. It enables you to express your feelings
and reasons behind your work, which therefore makes your work easier to understand,
and therefore more likely to be accepted. I have learnt how to present my work
to young people in a concise, and direct manner, explaining what choices they
have and what other options I can provide.
I have gained an understanding and have learnt how to pitch
and present my ideas and work to clients, have learnt how to address question,
and how to take on criticism and suggestions. I now have experience
answering/responding to question and any queries the students had in a
professional manner.
Stage 2
I was lucky enough to learn that for the book cover title
‘Once Upon a Place’ that my design had been short listed. There were 2 other
contenders and we each received some feedback and changes the students would
like use to adapt. The students had decided upon what colours they preferred,
my original colour palette, reasoning wasn’t given but I presume because it was
a more gender neutral colour scheme, which appealed to the majority. The
feedback I received was very detailed they liked the overall design but asked
if I could include buildings and places of where they had been to write their
work, or had places which had inspired them. These included the Everyman
Theatre- Cheltenham, Manor on the Lake and Sudley Castle, and wanting to
include more Cotswold related scenery, like rolling hills and trees. They also
required me to design a back cover directing to a very simple, hill with a tree
planted on the top. These directions were very informative, precise and direct
which creatively was very useful as I now had a greater understanding of what
they wanted. However, it did require a lot of work and research especially as I
was only had a few days to create and deliver the final artwork.
As I had never visited a few of the places that the students
had and didn’t have enough time to visit them, I ended up completing some
research and using multiple reference images for inspiration, and accuracy.
Following the same technique, I had done originally I
composed the final images, I kept the the colours and style the same as those
were the attributes which they like, but had to change around the composition
in order to fit in all of the places which they required. I kept a few building
(houses/flat) that I created to fill the in gaps between the places, and too
spread everything out a little. I designed a few tree and integrated them in between
the trees, and included some hills to hopefully suggest the Cotswold’s. For the
back cover as instructed I placed a tree on top of a hill and then connected
the front to the back cover with a road, which I placed a car on too add more
interest.
Even though I had precise directions for altering the designs
it was still quite challenging as I was eager and wanted to create the cover
how the students envisioned it, but I wasn’t able to contact them in order to
ask questions or options like you would normally to a client, you are almost
working blind. So, I had to trust my instinct and create a cover which followed
their instructions and as a design point of view which worked visually.
Below are my final cover illustrations (back and front).
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| Front cover |
 |
| Back cover. |
Overall, I am thrilled with the outcome of this cover
design, I think it embodies the title well, and hopefully lives up to the
expectation and envision that the students had.
Shortlisted 2
I was thoroughly pleased to hear that my second cover design
for ‘A Flock of Words Take Flight’, was also shortlisted to the final 3. This
was a surprise for me as I didn’t get an overall impressed feeling from the
student, showing that obviously weren’t expressing their feeling fully. Once
again I received some directions for alteration. This time I only has a couple
of changes to make. The students wanted the word ‘Flight’ in the title, which
follows the path of the branch up, to be closer together, feeling that the
letters which I had placed separately were a little further apart. Also for a
back cover they would like the branch of the tree to be extended onto the back
page so it looks like a continuous image.
For
the final images, I extended the branch, and added a few feather/leaves and a
bird to it too add interest and to ensure that it blended in with the front
cover. As instructed I moved the letters spelling ‘flight’ together. Below is
the final result.
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| The front and back combined |
For this one before the image was going to continue onto the
back cover I decided that it would be best if I placed both covers together so
that I could ensure that the image was in line with each other.
Stage 3- The Results
My design for ‘A Flock of Words Takes Flight’ anthology was
lucky enough to win the competition. This means that my design will be printed
onto the cover of the books, which will then be launched and available to buy
at the Cheltenham literature, where the other entries will also be shown.
I hope to attend this festival and launch event in the
summer to see firstly what the finished book looks like, and to see what the
students and the public think about my book cover design.
Reflective Evaluation
During this experience I have followed 2 different briefs,
have followed the criteria’s laid out and design 2 book covers relating to the
titles of the books. I have used my design and illustration styles to interpret
the book titles, in order to illustrate them in an unusual and professional
manner. I have pitched/presented by design to groups of school children, have
answered their questions and have responded positively to criticism, opinions
and directions. I was fortunate to have been shortlisted for both of my
designs. Using the suggestions, the students provided I have adapted/redesigned
my illustrations to suit them, working efficiently and effectively to tight
deadline. I was then fortunate enough to have won the competition for the
anthology cover entitled ‘A Flock of Words Take Flights’. I will therefore be
looking forward to seeing the final product, and will be attending the
Cheltenham Literature festival, to see the launch of it.
I feel that my design process was successful, believing that
I interpreted the briefs well and followed the format and boundaries
professional, and managed to alter my design in the second stage following the
students’ suggestions.
This experienced has reinforced my idea/market of producing
work which takes a book form, I feel that narrative/sequential illustrations if
the direction of field I am heading in, and in particular the children market.
This experience has provided me with an alternative target audience, usually I
market younger children, but I feel that as my work is clearly liked by older
teen students, that I could perhaps widen my audience slightly, and target
older people as well in my illustration practice.
I don’t think this experience had raised any problems or concerned
but had made me more aware of the importance of communication. I feel that
because we personally didn’t have that much content with the clients
(students), you couldn’t really ask too many question, this became apparent
following the shortlisting process, when I received the feedback, it would have
been useful to speak to the students, to gain a greater understanding, but I
understand that in the industry this cannot always be the case. Therefore, I
have learnt that I have to interpret the suggestions as best as I can, and use
my design instinct to judge what the clients want.
I feel that as I was quite successful in interpreted what
the client were looking for I perhaps need to start advertising for some
freelance work, starting to work towards outside briefs, which will challenge my
design ability, to see if this is something I wish to pursue.
During the presentation/pitching I wish I have asked more
questioned to the student, asking what they were looking for, any ideas they
had had etc. This way I think I would have been able to grasp what they were
looking for, and what kind of themes they had been writing about, feeling that
this would have helped me define my design further, as it would have been more
focused on their wishes, and not my interpretation.
Now I have evaluated my experience I need to complete more
research into both book publishing and free-lance work. I wish to enter more
book cover competition such as the ‘Penguin Student book cover design
competition’, in hope that this will aid my understanding of the book
publishing industry. I would like to advertise myself as a freelance
illustrate, and hopefully create work for other people following their briefs.
This will hopefully give me practice in following briefs, how to manage time,
communicate with clients, and ultimately help me decide whether it is a career
path I wish to pursue.
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