The book cover/ title sequence project felt like a project that I could do really well in. Coming from an illustration background I could really use my strengths to create attractive cover designs. I found it difficult to decide on which part of the brief I wanted to respond to. I am always indecisive when it comes to the primary decisions which is something I really need to work on, so my first step was to conduct primary research in Waterstones. I had some ideas which I felt were strong for the Rough Guides Travel Guides but wasn’t sure if they were too cliché and was attracted to the Puffin brief as if I did well then I might be given the chance to do a placement with them. I chose to do the Penguin brief for this reason and because I felt illustrations would be a more appropriate feature to a childrens book. I hope to design some travel guides over summer as a personal project because I do think that I have some good ideas for those books.
I conducted a massive amount of primary and secondary research for this project which was of a higher standard than on my other projects. I am really happy with the concepts and ideas that came from doing this. My final outcome is much more down to earth than some of my other ideas, some of which I will perhaps try out over summer as well. I wanted my designs to be believable as book covers so, having become really excited about all sorts of ideas, I reigned myself back in to produce my final covers. I experimented a lot with typography and made endless versions of the titles and authors’ names for each book, which combined with the illustrations they made a very coherent design. I wanted my books to be interesting and have a personal feel to them because Scott, my primary research interviewee, informed me that an interesting cover is what makes him pick up a book. The hand drawn style of my books is inspired primarily by the covers of the Wimpy Kid series which he described to me as being the most interesting covers he has seen. The way in which I have used my research in this project to inform my designs and creative decisions has been much improved on the way I have connected the two stages of the design process in other projects. Every single decision regarding the covers has been specifically informed.
The project critique was one of this year’s highlights as when we had finished post-it noting everybody’s work I returned to find mine surrounded by ‘most believable’ and ‘best design’ post-it notes. It felt great to receive such positive feedback from my peers and tutors whilst the entire year was stood around admiring my designs. This made me feel very successful and really proud. I was also impressed with my designs and agreed with the tutors feedback. Some of the images weren’t so convincing at that point, which the tutors picked up on, and the barcodes were too large for the reverse of the book. I also wanted to experiment a little with the barcodes to see if I could create something fun with them. The alterations I made after the tutorial improved the least successful aspects of my designs and I think this was time spent wisely. My book cover designs are the work I am most proud of from this year. I feel this reflects well on my learning curve, proving that the quality of my work has improved which is a very promising note to end the year on.
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