Book Cover Redesign Evaluation

Liam heeley

Themes I identified• In my final book cover design the chosen theme was war, which linked in with my books synopsis.

The Hunger Games is about 2 different types of humanity, representing different lifestyles. The less wealthy side of the city are used as entertainment for the wealthy people, in which they fight until death until there is eventually only one survivor. I represented an industrial background by taking a semantic picture of Ashton from the rooftop of IKEA and added a black and white effect to the image, also a gaussion blur, this created a moody feeling to the image as the image was not as visible as the original. This image created an industrial theme to the book cover, which is the setting for the original book cover. I used very simple, but effective colours because the style of book cover I was trying to design was set out to be simple, but attractive to the audience. The theme I was trying to portray from the colours I used was a formal, battleground theme, which didn’t include a humours theme, but was giving a very strong message. The lighting I used in the book cover were a mixture of bright and dark shaded areas, I managed to achieve this by adding a gradient to the background image. This mix of lighting links to the themes of the book because one side of the city are positive, which are the poverty ridden side and the more wealthy side of the city have lots of worries and are living to impress. The style of my book cover is a modern looking design, I chose this because I wanted to make a contrast with the book cover to the theme of the book. Another main reason I chose this modern design is because I wanted to totally redesign the book cover, as I used the grid technique, this is different to the original because the original didn’t use the grid effect so I was trying to portray a different theme than what the original was.

Typefaces• The font is used on my book cover was a serif font, that looked very

formal, this was important for me to portray a formal mood because this was what I was trying to turn the book into, a more modern version. The two words ‘HOPE’ and ‘FEAR’ are in a bigger text size as they are opposites and counteract each other, this is important for the audience to notice this because this allows them to know the two feelings that are being represented all throughout the film and how they counteract each other to create the films synopsis. I used the same format throughout the book cover because I wanted to continue the theme on the front and back, this was he grid effect that helped the text stand out, especially the title and author. The font attracts adult audiences and older teens because it is a formal font, this would not attract younger children unless they know the title of the book, this is important because it is not easy to follow, so therefore is aimed at older audiences.

Contextual Influences• I didn’t look at other book cover designs, I just used purely my imagination

because I wanted my design to be unique and l completely my own. I saw a couple of book covers dotted around he internet with a blurred background, which is the effect I went with because I wanted the background to still be visible but not the main thing on the book cover, this is important because the audience needs to be able to see the text before anything else so they know the name of the book. I also used a blurred background to link in with the book as the book has a lot of mystery included in it, so therefore the blurred background hints that there is hidden meanings and events throughout the book and it is not fully clear on what is happening. I think the original book cover was effective because the colors used worked very well together to create a modern looking book cover which was also very memorable. The typography on the original book cover was also very well thought of because it is using the ‘Z’ effect, so the audience sees the title of the book first, then the logo and then the author, which is in order of importance.

Stages of design process• It took my a lot of thought and effort to design a few versions of my book cover, from

sketching out lots of ideas to taking hours and one single book cover. In the end I finally designed one I was happy with as the colors I used and the background image was very appealing to me. During my design process I took lots of screenshots of other variations of my book cover, then put them in the corner of my screen so that I made sure all of m variations were not alike and had a completely new design on each. I am aware on some of my variations it is only little changed like the colors for example, but these changes are what helped me decide on a final design, as I could see what colors work best. I had to include some primary evidence of my own work, so originally I was going to take a picture of a bow and arrow and make it stick out the side of my book cover, but then I realized that it was easier said than done. So I borrow a camera from college and went to IKEA in Ashton and took images of Ashton from the rooftop and simply added the blue effect and a little gradient to add some character to it. This therefore meant I had my primary evidence in my final book cover design as it was the background image. Once I had all my text placed in the correct place and the image edited for the background, I started messing around with the line tool and eventually made a grid effect on my book cover, this created more of a modern feeling towards my book cover.

Final Design• I chose this design to be my final design because I thought the color scheme was very

modern and effective, which also worked very well with the grid effect I added. This book cover reaches the needs of the brief, which was to produce imaginative and original design work that explores typefaces and letter. The typography in my book cover uses all of the skills that I have learnt throughout my graphics course up to now, which mainly being center aligning text and making sure that the text is 100% centered from top to bottom, I find this important because its important that my work is the highest standard possible. The type on the back cover is very center aligned, which works well because the quote is easily read by the audience. I believe my design is very imaginative because I started off with a basic design, then began to add things to the design, like the grid effect for example and making certain text more noticeable than others. My favorite part of my design is the background image, this is because I took the image and edited it myself in Illustrator, I never thought I would have been capable to make something like it but I am proud of my work. The reason I like the background so much is because it works really well with the typography on my book cover as it is no making any of the text hard to see and on the top part of the book cover, it is just the sky so the main text is easily visible to the audience.