Idea | Inspiration | Colour

I have finished drawing out a few different ideas in my sketchbook, and after pondering upon which one to do I came up with the idea of having Mole looking up into the trees of The Wild Wood on the front cover as he's about to walk in, and then on the back cover I would have the scene from the stouts point of view from inside The Wild Wood. On the spine I would like to have a tree to complete the 3D view of the scene. 

As I've mentioned before I really like the idea of doing a wrap around book cover that is a seamless image throughout, but with this idea of Mole looking into The Wild Wood it wouldn't work out so well.  I think the solution I've come up with is as unique as they come, which answers a big part of both the competition and the Uni brief criteria I've been given. Visualisations of this idea will be on their way soon!

Moving onto the choice of colour | I think I need to have something desaturated, with highlighted colours for the eyes of the Stoats and for Mole's clothing. Possibly have the scene with snow fall? Dim lighting is a must, without an ounce of sun showing to cheer things up. With these things in mind about lighting etc I've come up with some primitive colour palettes:

The top colour palette being for Mole and his clothing, and the bottom palette for the scenery. I chose as I said before to have fairly desaturated colours throughout to give the impressions of darkness and the unforgiving feeling that the scene in The Wild Wood has. I've deliberately chosen a light grey colour to contrast against the darker ones, which would also be perfect for snow if I so wish to have this as an element.

For Mole's clothing I had thought of having the green for his jacket, and a brick red colour for his scarf. I think his scarf should be blowing in the wind, and his stance should be as if he's walking against the wind whilst looking upwards in awe and fear at the opening of the woods. 

After having these thoughts I went on an inspiration hunt for the project, thinking about a book I'd read many years ago about a heroic mouse. I remember the art style being fantastic but unfortunately I couldn't find the name of it. Instead I found these images below of a cartoon book called Mouse Guard. I think these images are fantastic, especially the first one which is perfect imagery for my front cover if the own had been replaced for The Wild Wood and the mouse replaced with Mole. I really like the way the artist has created the irregular shapes for the snow and how the difference in opacity of each snowflake gives the image depth. 

Source: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WKkn5yjmZtk/T
pdQOSFN7tI/AAAAAAAAOKU/02D7PpuVd6Y/s1600/MG07.jpg

This second image is a real inspiration for me when it comes to the tree branches in The Wild Wood. I think these are fantastic, and I think the contrast between the detail of the Mice and the branches works so well. It isn't the way I would have initially thought about working had it not been blended so well with this fantastic art style, sheerly because I wouldn't have thought I could make it work. The foot prints are another on of my favourite elements of this drawing, each one unique with different amounts of snow cover depending upon how far away it is in the shot. 

Source: http://www.mouseguard.net/wp-content/uploads
/2011/02/wintercover-large.jpg

This third image is another perspective on the scene, it is here just as an example of the rendering on the clothing, and the subtle gradients on the fur of the animals. Again the background is helpful because of the tree element, although the trees aren't nearly gnarly enough for the book cover I want to do. 

Source: http://robot6.comicbookresources.com
/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/mouseguard3heroes.jpg

Research | Font

I began researching a very vital part of the visual language for my book cover today; Typography.

Source: http://www.namethatfont.net/wp-
content/uploads/2012/10/lordoftherings-large.jpg

To start with I thought where better to look than at some of the classic books which feature epic adventures. "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Chronicles of Narnia" both instantly spring to mind when I think about adventure, and as this is the element of TWINTW I want to emphasise on the cover I thought it was appropriate to look at these.

I think the use of serif font is the most obvious feature when you first begin to analyse these titles. Next I noticed the use of different size texts. The less important words being in a far smaller font than the main part of the name; "Narnia" or "Lord of the Rings". I think what's really interesting on top of the use of different size fonts for different words, is the use of different height lettering to create shape around the words in TLOTR's font face. This is something I will definitely experiment with in my sketchbook. The sharp serifs found in both of these fonts tell us about the dark/ evil in each of the stories, a strong element but something you wouldn't consciously think about to start with. Again this is something I really like about the visual language found in both of these fonts, and I will be taking these ideas further into my own design. 

Source: http://wegotthiscovered.com/wp-content/
uploads/narnia-the-voyage-of-the-dawn
-treader-movie-image-logo.jpg

After analysing those fonts above it was time to hunt for some of my own. I used "dafont.com" to do this, and after scrolling through pages upon pages of fonts I have quite a collection at my disposal. One font has jumped out at me more than all of the others though, and is highlighted below. It is called MardianDemo, and I think it provides me with a perfect selection of typographic elements to depict the story of The Wind in the Willows as I want to. 

The first thing that strikes me when I look at this font is the sharp horn like shapes created by the calligraphic style on base of the "W", and then to contrast this the sweeping serifs that flow away from the lettering at the top. I think the sharp horns on the base of the letters are going to perfectly depict the darker parts of the novel such as the scene I will be using on the book cover of The Wild Wood, with all the evil forest creatures attacking Mole. And to perfectly balance this out the long sweeping serifs found on the "T" and the top of the "W" will tell of a great hospitality and fun spring days on the river depicted in the story.  

Research | Existing Book Covers

Source: http://www.thelowry.com/Images/Brochure38

/Wind_in_the_Willows_main.jpg

Here are some images I found through searching for The Wind in the Willows book covers on the internet.

The first illustration sums up quite nicely the cliche imagery used on the book covers for this classic tale; Ratty and Mole in a boat on an idillic summers day underneath a Willow tree. I really like the art style the artist has used, a mixture of a photograph for the background, and then hand drawn characters on top.

Source: http://www.openlettersmonthly.com

/issue/wp-content/uploads/2009

/12/annotated_wind_in_the_willows.jpg

The next image is another cliche scene from the book, where Ratty and Mole are once more on the river in Ratty’s boat, although this time the colouring is desaturated which doesn’t make it seem like summer as much as the previous image. This is a step in the right direction for my idea of having a dark and unhappy scene for the book cover, which exposes some of the deeper themes in the book. The way Mole is drawn in this book cover is something I’m going to use as inspiration for my cover. He looks small, and his poise suggests that he is vulnerable.

 I like the way the typography has been laid out for this book cover, I think it is one of the more important design choices because even though the other design choices are cliche such as using bigger text to highlight the title, it doesn’t over power from any of the other text on the page because of the layout. It brings a less modern art style up to date in my eyes, by also utilizing the negative space of the water. A very subtle but clever move overall. 

Source: http://images.contentreserve.com/Image

Type-100/1087-1/%7B448802D4-5A63

-4384-9431-6E3680AB653D%7DImg100.jpg

The third image is something that is easily achievable with the tools I will be using for this project; Illustrator CS4 + Photoshop CS4. It has an up to date art style, utilizing what looks like a typical modernist vector drawing approach. I like the combination of baby blue and green in this cover, as these colours aren’t often combined. This could possibly catch the judges eye, and eventually the customers eye when they’re looking to buy a book.  I’m not a fan of the font choice at all, but I like the way the designer has made a triangular shape out of the authors name and the title of the book.

Source: http://ecx.images-amazon

.com/images/I/51PYSRSFQAL._SL500

_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-big,TopRight,

35,-73_OU02_.jpg

Here again is a cliche scene from the book. The reason I really like this one is because of the way the title is displayed on a big billboard style frame. The tree branches cover corners of it making it blend into the background of the scene but without making it obsolete. Its definitely an element I’m going to include in my book cover. I think it will be a focal point of my design having a path leading to it and trees covering the dead space around it in a scary manor. I really like the small willow tree logo in the billboard, it makes it seem like an advert for the book within the book and references the title at a glance.

The san-serif font works really well for this cover. I think it compliments the overall art style well because of the period they're both from. This way of working is something I'd like to mimik in my final cover design. In terms of a visual tie between the style of the drawing and the font I think the way the tree branches are advancing onto the frame really emphasises how well they fit together. Its a cliche but classic style. I'd like to reflect the classic part of the style, but try not to make it look too cliche. 

Choosing a Book | ?

After doing research into both of the books it's time to be decisive and come to a conclusion of which book I will be designing a cover for.

After reading the synopsis for both of the books I've decided that The Wind in the Willows is going to be my primary choice, and if I do have time I'll work on doing a cover for The Big Sleep. I read the opening passages of both books and was instantly more welcomed by The Wind in the Willows, and so I read on finding out about the characters and themes in more depth. I have chosen The Wind in the Willows because I felt there was a lot more scope for doing something different from the cliche covers that have been repeated time and time again, of the characters sitting on the river bank etc. I can see that there is a darker side to this novel that people haven't exposed as of yet, and that is what I aim to do. 

Source: http://www.illustrationartgallery.com/acatalog/MendozaW33.jpg

The Big Sleep | Shallow research

Author: Raymond Chandler

Publisher:  1939

Genre: Crime Novel

Source: http://sgbrowne.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Big_Sleep.jpg

The title  "The Big Sleep" is a euphemism for death, giving you the first clue of what the book is about. The fact there is a gun on this front cover too is another huge giveaway as this is something we nearly always associate with death. Moving onto research into the plot I found out that it is about a detective whom was asked to deal with a blackmailing. This original crime scene escalates when there are two murders the same night he goes to investigate the blackmailing. He begins to solve these murders and by the end he sees the bigger picture of who's blackmailing who. 


The themes of this book:

• Crime
• Blackmail
• Drugs
• Sex
• Gambling
• Murder
• Class

The Wind in the Willows | Shallow Research

Author: Kenneth Grahame

Genre: Children's Novel

Published: 1908

 

Source: http://www.paulfrasercollectibles.com/upload/public/docimages/Image/u/w/d/The-Wind-in-the-Willows.jpg

To start with I used Google to search for a synopsis of the book, along with information about the author, publishers and the genre of the book. The Wind in the Willows is about a group of 4 friends, 3 of which are trying to save the other from his own self destructive obsessions. This, for a children's book is quite a sinister element, teaching how money and greed can lead to loss friends and life. I may play on this aspect if I decide to design a cover for this book. 

Themes found in the book:

• Acceptance
• Hospitality
• Fear
• Power

AF101 | New Assignment

"Programme of Study:	FdA Digital Media Design
Module Code / Module Title:	AF101 Visual Communication
Assignment Title:	Book Cover
Value of Assignment:	100% of final Module Grade
Module Tutor:	George Hedges, Kate Williams, Andrew Williamson.

The Brief Design a book cover following a supplied competition brief (The Penguin Design Award) Then adapt this design into an A2 Poster, advertising the re-launch of the book. Following the requirements of the competition brief you should aim to design a striking cover design that is well executed, has an imaginative concept, an original interpretation of the brief, a strong use of typography and clearly places the book for its market. While all elements of the jacket need to work together as a cohesive whole, remember that the front cover must be effective on its own and be eye-catching within a crowded bookshop setting and on screen for digital retailers such as Amazon. You should go through a thorough, continuous process of research and experimental preparatory work before settling on a final image this process should be evidenced in your sketchbooks and your blog. Finished Designs  The image/s you create will need to be art-worked into a book cover design, to include the title, all supplied copy, logos and barcode. Therefore you will be required to use InDesign to add the editorial requirements listed in the competition brief. Work for entry into the competition must be supplied in the following format: PDF, 300dpi, CMYK, 5mm bleed, Ideally colour managed to ISO Coated 39 or ISO Uncoated 29 (optional), Trim and crop marks to be included, Max file size = 5mb. You are also asked to supply working files for marking purposes (not to be uploaded for the competition) We also require you to adapt your design into an A2 poster for marketing and promotion. Format = PDF. You are required to produce a ‘Branding Guideline’ for the book cover and poster. This will also be laid out in InDesign and saved out for submission as a PDF. Written statement about your Final design. (This can be done as a stand-alone entry in your Blog but must also be submitted as a word document.) Between 500 and 1000 words describing how the design you have created fits the competition brief (for the book you have chosen) and in particular what you were trying to communicate through your image, typography and layout etc. Deadlines and Key Dates On Monday 3rd December from 9.30am you will put forward your proposal for your chosen Book Cover And Poster Designs for discussion and evaluation.  This must include research, sketchbook and blog work for idea development and a concept you can pursue for your final Book Cover design. This must be a properly prepared presentation, using Keynote or Powerpoint, and must be submitted on Hercules at the start of this session. On Monday 7th January 2013 from 9.30 you will crit your final products to the whole group.  On Friday 11th January 2013 by 4.00pm – you will upload your final submission to the server and submit your sketchbooks for assessment.

Method of Assessment What you must produce: The Learning Outcomes will be met by submission of the following items and will be graded using the specific criteria listed below: On the Server (Hercules) – PDF of book cover. A2 PDF of the Poster, plus a folder containing all the editable working files (InDesign docs and psd/ai files) Sketchbook & Blog – evidence of research, preparatory work and final designs Written statement – 500-1000 words, double-spaced, Helvetica or Arial, as a Word doc/x or PDF" At first glance I'm very excited about this project, mostly because we'll be further developing our skills in Illustrator as well as learning some InDesign techniques. I'm quite undecided so far as to which book I'd like to design a book cover for. The Wind in The Willows is a story I know quite well compared with The Big Sleep, but I'm quite intrigued to find out more about the story of The Big Sleep.

AF102 | Evaluation

Now I've come to the end of my first Uni project. Overall I'm really happy with the way I've worked throughout this project, and the designs I have managed to produced back this up well. 

            

I am glad I've managed to produce posters in both the British and Soviet propaganda style of the early 1900's, as this was one of the aims I'd set myself at the beginning of the project. 

I think the right hand poster is more successful than the left hand one, simply because I spent more time finessing it and went through many more versions thus developing it more than with the second poster. I don't feel I've had the time to complete what I intended to, and so features of the original such as the rising sun graphic within the star are not included unfortunately. This is a definite improvement to make in the next project; time management.

None the less I'm very happy with the left poster and how its come out. My favourite feature of it is the way i've drawn the highlights/lowlights on the clothes. I've used the locations for the clothing highlights from the original poster, but I've used sharper lines everywhere. I think this adds a feeling of the constructivism art style, without taking over the whole poster and without loosing the style of the original poster. 

With the right hand poster being my favourite there is inevitably going to be far more to comment about. I really think I've nailed what we were asked to do in this project with this poster, which was "Produce at least one poster promoting an aspect of Web 2.0 Social Media..." which must be "Based on propaganda posters from the first half of the twentieth century - 1900 to 1950." I've used a more modern, albeit minimalistic way of producing the art for the poster, whilst replicating the original visual style through the font, colour and layout. 

I'm happy with the font choices I made, and although I was advised by my class to change the top font. I think the bottom font, and its layout is perfectly finessed to replicate the posters original. I think the kerning on the bottom text adds a slight modern element which I really like, but the way it is positioned, along with its size is still original.

I feel the subtle features of my poster have been the most important; the finer details are by far my favourites. I think the element I'm most proud of is the background. The Vimeo logo is the biggest thing on the poster, but it doesn't take over from the woman, or any of the other features uncontrollably. The way I've made the colouring pastel make it seem that bit more subtle, and in even if you don't consciously think about it you know its there and the underlying brand behind the poster is unmissable. Again the small Vimeo logo's featured all over the poster continue this subtle brand placement that I really like.

The colouring of this poster was based upon shades of brown, blue and cream; All of which were taken from the orignal poster, apart from the blue which was selected from the Vimeo logo, and then by reducing the blue I managed to make it less intense. I think I've done a great job of introducing a foreign colour into the colour palette without reducing the authenticity of the overall design. I think the blue adds the modern feel the brief required, and relates to Vimeo so strongly it can't be misinterpreted. 

I'm happy with how this whole project has turned out. I found that to start off  I was quite daunted by the brief and the what was expected by the due date. With this in mind I started by research straight away I couldn't select a specific art style I really wanted to do, which caused me to become quite distracted and go off course from what the brief had specified. I eventually ended up with both British and Soviet propaganda as my favourite art styles and I started the British one. I thought this poster developed really well, with 4 versions created and developed upon until finally deciding on my last design.

I have had some great feedback from my class mates about what was working, and what wasn't. At  first I was nervous about presenting my work, but after having a long group discussion about any changed that needed to take place all these feeling were replaced with confidence about my design and some elements I needed to work on in both my posters. 

I feel I can take forward a lot of skills into the next project, in terms of software techniques and pre production. I think my most valued skill with be that of confidence to draw and come up with ideas. One of the worst problems I've come up against whilst designing before is the lack of confidence to try new techniques, or to even start drawing with a pencil because a fear of failing, but this project has definitely turned things on their head. The one point I will pay more attention to in the next project is reading the brief. Although I thought I knew what was required of me throughout, on review of the brief at the end I realised I could have been far more efficient had a read the brief more often. 

I think i've gained great experience from this project, and am a lot more confident with Illustrator now than I was before. Next time I aim to leave myself more time to produce my work at the end, and to read the brief more often. 

Second Poster | Finalised

I've finally finished my second poster. I've added a background star as is featured in the original and I think this really finishes the poster off. It adds an extra element of depth where it was previously very flat. I'm really happy with the outcome, and i feel I have completely replicated the art style whilst adding a modern essence to it. 

Second Poster | Details

I have added highlights/ lowlights to the clothes. I've also added in the star outlines on the edge of the poster as I think this is a key characteristic from the original piece of art. 

I'm really happy with the poster now, and as I will be handing all my work in at the end of today I won't be changing an awful lot. 

I think I have suceeded in mimiking the art style of the original poster in terms of the people. The Star behind that however is a more modern take on the original. I think the clean, crisp lines bring it right up to date, along with the Vimeo logo centred in the middle and the negative space surrounding. I don't know whether to experiment with the rising sun effect behind the Vimeo logo or not, as this was another key characteristic of a lot of the soviet posters. 

Hand text | Removal

Here is a screenshot of my edited poster. I have removed the text from her hands, enlarged and aligned "Compression" to the centre. These changes were all suggested by my class mates during a critique of my work. Although I had a lot of changes suggested by them, I decided just to go with these because I feel happy that the rest of my design doesn't need changing. 

Overall I'm really happy with this poster, although no doubt I'll have a couple more changes to make before handing it in. Probably my favourite feature of it is the suble Vimeo logo's throughout. They make the viewer subconsciously think about the brand, without having it as the focal point of my design. 

Critique | Corrections

Today I displayed my work to my classmates in order to get some feedback on what they think of my design.
They gave me a lot of points to work upon for both of my posters, especially the first one. 
To do list:

• Larger bottom font/ different font

• Add softer texture to background V
• Move text from hands, make boxes into Jack in the box with text coming out of them

• Less bend on line underneath compression and centre "compression" in order to balance out loss of hand text.

• Rethink the colour of the dress highlights. No light source in my poster so the highlights are too bright. Possibly use slightly lighter brown than the dress colour to illustrate highlights.

For my second poster I have had problems selecting a colour palette. I want to include colours that reference Vimeo, but to do that I need blue, which completely fights against all the original colours of the poster because it is a cool colour. After discussing I've decided to:

•  Experiment with either Black/White/Red or continue with the Blue/White/Red colour schemes.
• Add far more detail on the clothing and faces
• Use the star shape at the edge of the poster to emulate the original

Second Poster | Progression

I decided to start my second poster today and below is a screen shot of my progression so far. I've had to alter the colour scheme slightly, removing the yellow and replacing it for the Vimeo Blue. I feel by changing this element I've lost a lot of the Russian character the poster originally had, but without it I can't see it working.

The next tasks for me are to continue doing the finer details of the poster, and experiment with the colour palette.

Plans | Second Poster

As i've successfully completed one poster I would like to try to complete a second before our hand in date.

Because I've already researched fairly deeply into the Constructivist art movement and I am very fond of this art style I am going to use a soviet poster as inspiration for a second poster design. I'm going to continue promoting Vimeo, but using a different aspect.

Source: http://criticalinquiry2.zoomshare.com/files/soviet.jpg

My ideas for this poster so far:

• "Unite with Vimeo!"
• Aspect - Groups
• Vimeo logo in centre of the star