Documentation for Project4

I chose 1984, Lord of the Flies and Three Body Problem as my series. They are all dystopian novels.

Initial sketches:

Digital Iterations: Initially I put some simple illustrations at the top right corner of the front cover, and a quote from the book on the back cover. For Three Body Problem I inserted alien words because it is about aliens. However, I think the alien words are not parallel to the other words. Back page is also quite empty. I also didn’t know what colors to put.

First crit: I modified the initial iterations for first crit. I followed another set of sketches and made the illustrations bigger. I still struggled to find the right colors. Some classmates mentioned that the strokes should not have different widths and that the title should have a different font. Overall I think the cover still looks quite empty and does not fully convey a dystopian theme.

Then I experimented with other options. I got rid of the illustrations and opted to include some colors. I thought 1984 should have a red color because it is about authoritarianism and propaganda. Lord of the Flies should have a

green color because it is set in the jungles. Three Body Problem should have a blue color because it takes place in space. I wanted a darker shade for all three books to make the covers look heavy. I sliced the titles to create tension and cacophony.

I liked the colors I used before and brought back my initial illustrations to create the following. The 1984 cover is too similar to a cover I found online so I didn’t use this.

At the same time I started experimenting with other illustrations and ideas. One of them involves shooting a bullet that pierces through the title on the front cover, like the picture below. In the background I would have iconic red and yellow rays. I traced the outline of a pistol I found online. I also found a propaganda font on the internet. I would draw bows and arrows for Lord of the Flies, and a laser weapon for Three Body Problem.

I thought the pistol was a bit dull so I also traced out an AK47. In this one I would draw the title on the body of the weapon.

I had several problems with this approach. First I couldn’t decide what background color to put for Lord of The Flies and Three Body Problem. Second, I had difficulties keeping the style of the illustrations consistent and draw a simplistic and futuristic weapon for Three Body Problem. I think this approach would have worked very well for 1984 but maybe not for the other two books. In retrospect the bullet piercing the title idea from before might have been a better choice.

I adapted the original ray idea and eliminated the eyes. Now it looks like a light shining and illuminating the bloody 1984. I think it still preserves the creepiness I had originally. I also changed the typeface of the body and title. I think the title’s typeface can still be improved.

I changed the color to red, which matches the authoritarian theme of 1984. I also felt that the black background with a ray of white light might be more appropriate for Three Body Problem since it resembles space.

I chose a dark theme for Three Body Problem so it resembles space, and a green theme for Lord of the Flies because the novel is set in the jungle. The problem now is that the titles of Lord of The Flies and 1984 both have a yellow color. Their rays are dark while their background is light. Three Body Problem has a blue title, a light colored ray and a dark background, which does not match the other two novels. Lord of the Flies’s background is also more dull than that of 1984.

With Lord of the Flies, I first increased the saturation of the background, and also tuned the color of its ray.

Then I changed the ray to brown so it looks earthy, and added my original illustration back. (I matched the wrong illustration here)

For three body problem, I wanted to tune up the saturation. Unfortunately that means the illustration can’t be black anymore. So I changed the background to blue, which is the next closest color to space. I also couldn’t decide what color to put on the ray. (matched the wrong illustration again.

I thought that the aqua colored ray on the left image is too similar to the background color. The other two novels’ backgrounds and rays had contrasting colors. I decided to choose the ray on the left picture. At this point, the three books looked like this:

I changed the typeface of the title again to another one I found on the internet. Originally I wrote the quotations and the author’s name using the same typeface. However they are too skinny and hard to read. So I changed to a typeface different from the title. I added all the illustrations to the back cover. For Lord of the Flies I made one of the lenses broken. I changed the illustrations’ widths and colors to be the same across all three books. I also modified the color of the title of Three Body Problem to orange to match with the yellowish color of the other two books. The orange is supposed to represent the sun. I changed the quotations to be left aligned instead of center aligned because center alignment is too harmonious and does not fit the theme. I adjusted the quotations so that they all fit in three lines, and the changed the line spacing so that the three lines align with the title on the front cover. I also aligned the three titles, illustrations, and quotations.

Lastly, I extended the ray over the edges so that it is easier to cut. I think overall the slicing of the titles creates the uneasy feeling I was aiming for, and the color schemes also match the books’ respective themes. This is the final set of covers: