Project Four: Shape & Color with Book Covers
About the Project
For this project, we were assigned to create design covers for three books that are part of a series, whether they are an existing trilogy or have similar themes. Some constraints were that no photographic imagery was allowed, same color palette of three to four hues plus black and white must be employed, and no more than two type families can be used. The objective of this assignment was to manipulate typography, form, and color to interpret content that has an expressive nature for informational communication artifacts.
Process: Sketches
To begin, I chose books that have fantasy themes, and involve a child protagonist going to a mythical place. Namely, they are Alice in Wonderland, Bridge to Terabithia, and Wizard of Oz. My first concept was to keep lots of white space and make the covers have a simple look: simply place one respective object that represents the plot of the book. In this case, it was a hole for Alice in Wonderland, a bridge for Bridge to Terabithia, and a ticket for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (a book that I decided not to use). My second concept was to draw characters of the book as if they were seeping out of the right-side of the cover, but this concept seemed overly complicated. My third concept was to use the type in conveying the essence of the book, for instance, tilt and position the letters in “Alice in Wonderland” to give the impression that they are falling down a hole.
Process: Iteration 1
From my sketches, I decided that using the type can communicate the essence of the novels in an unique way. Alice in Wonderland had rotated letters, and the last three letters were placed so that it seemed like they were falling down a hole I drew on Illustrator. Bridge to Terabithia had part of the “Terabithia” slanting upwards then downwards to represent a bridge. Wizard of Oz had the “Oz” in big, green size to represent the castle that the character was trying to get to. For all three book covers, a girl’s silhouette travelling on a path was used. After our interim critique, I realized my color schemes needed consistency because some were complements, while others analogous.
Process: Selecting Color Schemes
One color scheme I considered was using complements — subtle combinations that are “near opposites”. Hence, purple-yellow for Alice in Wonderland because I thought the book is quite psychedelic, and so purple embodies that conception of the novel; green-red for Bridge to Terabithia because green embodies the nature aspect of the book; orange-blue for Wizard of Oz to match Dorothy’s hair color. The colors all had the same brightness; hence, one was not too bright to cause an imbalance on the cover. The main colors made sense, but the accompanying colors did not really have meaning towards the concepts of the novels.
Process: Major Changes
After more experimentations, I came to the realization that analogous colors — colors built from hues that sit near to each other on the color wheel and have minimal chromatic differences, may be more pleasing to the eyes. This was accomplished by choosing a starting color, and then adjusting only the brightness of that color. For my Alice in Wonderland piece, overlapping circles that grew darker and darker at the center were placed in order to represent a hole. The “d” is below the other type and tilted to give the impression that it is falling into the hole. For my Wizard of Oz piece, curved lines of different shades were used to convey wind, and the “Oz” is placed above the other type to give the impression that it is being blown away. For my Bridge to Terabithia piece, different colors of green were curved along with “Terabithia” to represent a bridge.
Initially, I thought that an old-looking typeface suited the “fantasy” theme, but after more consideration, I realized that a font like Futura is suited for edit, and properly gives the text “life”. The cursive type for the authors and the quotes pays homage to Disney and successfully differentiates between the titles and other elements on the covers.
In contrast to the front, the back is fairly simple, and contains lots of white space. A “piece of home” for each respective protagonist is placed in a box, and the impression I wanted to give was to “think outside the box” or “go out of your comfort zone”.
Process: Final Touches
For my final touches, I decided to make all three book covers more consistent with one another. Hence, all the texts, excluding the author names, were made white. Furthermore, the placement of the author is same across all three covers. In order to communicate to readers that these three books are part of the same series, I placed easily-readable logos on the spine and top-right portion of the cover.
Critique
During our final project critique, people stated that the use of the type was effective in Alice in Wonderland and Wizard of Oz, but not as effective in The Bridge to Terabithia. Perhaps, more life could have been given to the “Terabithia”. Overall, this project required us to use all our previous knowledge from past projects and use it together coherently.
