FMP (BA): Prototype - Accordion Book

The reason why I would want to do this "accordian" book is because it was my original plan when I had only produced 4 pages at the very beginning. I didn't think that I had the time to not only produce more designs but to turn them into double-paged spreads, so I had pushed this thought aside.

However due to my problems with double-sided printing the accordion book does sound promising as it wouldn't require for any of my designs to be printed in such a way, and could actually be printed as joined spreads and not having each side separated. It's a bit too early to make my decision just yet so I thought that the best way to decide is to actually create an accordion prototype.

The tutorial:

My "screenshots":

FMP (BA): Prototype - Saddle Stitching

Saddle Stitching

I laid out all of my test prints from Staples and cut them out with a scalpel one-by-one. As it had that problem with it being slightly off-centre I had to cut it down a bit smaller in order to trim off any white edges.

Once all of the pages were trimmed I folded each one in the middle separately. I then arranged them in the same fashion as I did previously, now that I know that my prototype I had produced much earlier had worked.

I then followed the saddle stitch binding tutorial from Sea Lemon:

My "screenshots":

FMP (BA): Prototypes - Double-Sided Print

My main focus is to now create some prototypes so that I am prepared for when it comes to assembling the final thing.

Test Prints - University Printers

The first stage involved printing out my spreads double-sided. I'm hoping that everything would go smoothly once this has been done and it would also give me a general idea of what my book would look like.

Once everything was printed I put them together in the same order I had referenced from my prototype. I didn't cut them out as I wanted to see if everything was displayed correctly and that each side was with their other halves (so that they formed a complete DPS).

The prototype worked! Everything was in the correct order, however, I noticed that when I had folded them that the designs looked slightly... Odd. It seems that when I printed them double-sided the printer had shifted the design on the other side to the left by at least 1cm!

FMP (BA): Book Spreads - InDesign

Arranging the Spreads

I want to start working on my spreads as soon as possible so that if there were any problems with the printing and binding stage I would know in enough time to make the decision of whether to do it myself or print it off at Blurb. I therefore opened up InDesign, typed in my page dimensions (125 x 154mm) and then started to place my spreads.

I placed all of my designs according to what I had learnt from my prototype (which seems so long ago since I had done it). I kept it beside me to use as reference. I couldn't put in the front and back covers right now as they will be done in different dimensions so I only focused on the "inside" pages.

I first focused on displaying the "copyright" information as well as the names of the original texts. Once I had finished writing them up I played around with layout and in the end reduced the text to 8pt and had it left aligned. I chose a soft grey colour for my type as I think that black is too dominating against the white background.

How I've laid this out is that I shall first design the front pages, then on the next two pages they'll be the 'reverse' sides. In this case, my reverse sides for now are going to be blank. On the other side of the "credits" I'll be displaying the right-hand side of DPS 6.

Now I'm moving onto the next pages which will feature the left-hand side of DPS 1 and the right-hand side of DPS 5. The reverse side of this will be the left-hand side of DPS 6 and then the title, author and FTweekend.

Then it was DPS 2 and 4 and then 5 and 1.

The next pages were "easier" as it will display the full spread of DPS 3, which was one of my strongest designs "The Raven". On the other side I had DPS 4 and 2.

And that was all of the inside pages arranged! I shall just to create the covers (which I did in a different document as the dimensions will be different).

Now that all of the pages and covers are done, I could run some test prints and try out some of the bookbinding techniques I had researched right near the beginning of this project.


Reflective Thinking - Summary

This process was made easy due to the fact I had created a small prototype at a much earlier stage. I was able to use that as reference for this process, and as it worked on the prototype I believe that it would work with these.

However I am really worried that something would go wrong in the printing stage, as I had experience with double-sided prints and it didn't work very well before. If this is the case I shall consider having it printed out in Staples or with Blurb.

FMP (BA): Book Cover - Adjustments

I decided to go back and have a look at my book covers now that I have some spare time on my hands. Even though these adjustments aren't necessary I thought that I might just play around with different effects as I really want to bring out the swirl of feathers/quills.

Out of curiosity, I tried to create a shadow with the swirls but because I didn't draw the swirls separate from the banner it did cause some problems with gaps.

My first try was with the "drop shadow" in "blending options":

I then tried it by simply duplicating it again and lowering the opacity.

The reason I lowered the opacity instead of changing it to black/grey was because the drop shadow effect that I had done previously made the design look slightly "dirty" against the soft grey/cream background. I wanted to build up on this gold and "heavenly" effect so that it softens the overall appearance.

However, that didn't work quite as well as I thought because it made the design look far too busy and confusing:

With those experiments done - and with them not going as planned - I began to think of other ways to improve the swirls. I then came up with the idea to darken some of the places where the feathers "fold", and then do some lighter shading on where the light source would hit. 

To do this I simply duplicated and then locked my swirls layer, took a soft brush tool, and began to paint the darker areas.

This worked really well because the darker and lighter areas have created depth and made the swirls more 3D rather than just lines.


Reflective Thinking - Summary

I am glad that I had taken the time to experiment a little bit more with my front cover because it is one of the most important factors of a book; it has to attract the viewer so that they would pick it up and flick through, so I need to make it stand out from the rest of the leaflets handed out at the Oxford Literary Festival.

The swirls now have more depth and it adds more colour to the design overall, even if it's simply different shades of one of the main colours. This gives me the idea to maybe use gold thread... Well, that'll all depend on whether or not my prototypes turn out as planned.

They also bring out the banner and books because those are so light in comparison, and lifts it up from the background. This design now has three "layers"; foreground, middle-ground (the swirls) and the background.

My next step is to move onto trying out some prototypes. Even though I haven't technically finished my designs nor have I tweaked my existing ones, I really want to get the printing side of things sorted as the tweaking wouldn't take too long to do.

Learning Outcomes:
[9] Developed their ability to work with complex material, analyse problems and identify appropriate solutions.

FMP (BA): Back Book Cover - Design Process

I found it much easier to design the back cover because of the fact that I had completed my first. All that needs to be displayed on this is "designed by Liz J Owen". I was going to do this through hand-lettering but I then realised that I would need to write up the copyright notes and other notes on the inside with an existing font anyway.

Putting that aside, I first focused on positioning my book and quill which I decided to include on the back as a small illustration. This was quite easy to do as I just edited my original file. 

Then it was just a case of adding in my type. I was already set on using Minion Pro as it's a really elegant and easy-to-read typeface as well as a serif one which would connect with what they use on the Oxford Literary Festival website.

That's all I wanted to have for the back... It looks quite plain but that's because I'll be displaying most of the information on the inside pages.

So here's what both of my covers look like as a DPS:

Reflective Thinking - Summary

I'm not quite sure about the logo so I decided to thus go back to concentrating on the front cover and logo arrangement. I would like to add more information such as a blurb to the back, but I think I might do this when I have put everything into InDesign to carry out some test prints.

N.B. Please note that I had produced my front cover design process all at once, so this post may appear to have been posted after I had made my adjustments with the logo even though it was done around the same time.

FMP (BA): Information for the Other Pages

I want to start working on the other pages that would be displayed in the book, and that includes displaying some copyright information and possibly something about the Oxford Literary Festival.

As I wasn't entirely sure what to add I took some photos of my Harry Potter book (the French version) to see what they put in theirs.

For the first page of their book they have left it blank and on the second they had simply displayed the logo of the publisher, so I could possibly do the same but feature the FTweekend and Oxford Literary Festival logo as I don't really have a publisher as such. I have considered Oxford University Press but it seems that this book wouldn't fall into any of their categories... So I'll just use FTweekend for now.

FMP (BA): Critical Thinking - My Designs

With my designs done I wanted to put them all in one document so that I could briefly analyse them. I will also include ones that I didn't choose to print for my final product with reasons why. 

Design One - My Thoughts Are Stars

Critical Thinking

This was the first time where I had used my own handwriting and just 'decorated' it slightly, something I was inspired to do after reading the article on The Fozzy Book called Writing with your handwriting. This really opened my eyes and made me realise that the best tools we have are right in front of us, even if it's a little thing like our own handwriting.

Today's Thoughts

I feel that I am reaching a good stage to reflect on what's been happening with my work. I have not only produced double-paged spreads for all of the quote designs I have done but I have also managed to create a front cover for the book. 

I have just over three weeks to complete my design and have it readily presented for the examiner, so I have been thinking that I might create a new design. All of my quotes have been derived from literature sources... All but one; my Nelson Mandela design.

I feel that maybe I should create another that wasn't from literature so that it didn't seem too out of place but I am worried that I wouldn't have enough time. It took me at least a few weeks to produce good designs for the rest of my quotes and I wouldn't want to rush it. Besides, I still have to complete my book design and make a few tweaks to my existing DPS'.

I had a look back at the Oxford Literary Festival website to see if I could figure out the other topics that they cover just in case I do feel that I have enough time to produce another design. Here's a list of what I have jotted down:

• Philosophy
• Politics and Memoirs
• Fiction
• Music
• Language and Literature
• History
• Fiction
• Exploration, Travel and Travel History
• Children and Young People
• Current Affairs

Luckily, some of my designs might be able to fit into these categories:

• Philosophy - "My fault are stars I cannot fathom into constellations"
• Politics and Memoirs - "It always seems impossible until it's done"
• Exploration, Travel and Travel History - "Not all those who wander are lost"
• Children and Young People - "Today you are You... "

However they don't really "fit" in a sense that neither of these are from those subject areas. For example, "my thoughts are stars I cannot fathom into constellations" isn't actually from a philosophical book. So there's a 50/50 chance that these designs would work.

On the other hand I wouldn't have to worry too much about this as my brief doesn't ask of me to design quotes in order to fit into the above categories as long as they are quotes/words. 

My decision is to therefore try and finish off my book cover and make tweaks to the DPS design before moving onto another quote, just in case.

FMP (BA): Inspiration - Colours and Forms

I was getting a bit stuck on what to do with my "quotes" word; it looked good but the white gaps between each letter was uneven. I had tried to change that in Illustrator (as you can see from my design process) but it still didn't work very well...

So it was back to the gathering-research board for me, and I quickly had a flick through Mary Kate Mcdevitt's Hand Lettering Ledger. I really admire her work and how she manages to create different effects by simply changing the letterforms, and even though I didn't really want to create a fun appearance as such I wanted to figure out what sort of decorations she used.

I mainly focused on the decorations - as mentioned above - and quite liked how she created that 3D effect on some of her letterforms. Her designs leaned more on the "fun" side of things so I wasn't completely sure if I would use bold and bright colours, but I did find the way she drew things really inspirational. 

I also had a flick through "New Vintage Type: Classic Fonts for the Digital Age" by Steven Heller and Gail Anderson for some colour combinations. I really want to use a monotone palette as I had noticed that the Oxford Literary Festival's primary colours were black and white but I just wanted to add one splash of colour to liven it up just a little bit. I feel that the monotone palette really created a professional and elegant appearance. Here are some photos I took of it while looking through:

FMP (BA): Front Book Cover - Digital Design Process

Making Adjustments

I scanned everything in and made adjustments. This process didn't take long at all as I have gotten so used to doing it, and once everything was done I put them all together on the same document and began to put everything in place. I had taken note that the quill was too close to the book so I shifted it upwards using both the lasso tool and transform tool.

Fixing the Type

With that done I decided to edit "Quotes" in Illustrator because the inconsistency with the white gaps was really affecting the whole design and made it look slightly messy. Using the Pen tool I started to draw the white gaps again - having redone the inking and filling in the gaps before scanning it into Illustrator.

I didn't want to spend too long doing this so most of the white gaps were inaccurate, as I just wanted the general idea. I wasn't too sure about this though so I added in some white diamonds to see if that would improve it. 

FMP (BA): Book Cover Sketches & Final Sketch

After gaining some feedback I was really motivated to do my book cover design, and as I was flicking back through my previous sketches I realised that they have become really structured and 'stiff'. Therefore I went back even further to look at the designs just before I reached this stiff appearance, and found one of my sketches where the words were flowing around the page. 

That together with one of my inspirations, the Ely poster, I began to start sketching again and this time just improve on this 'flow'. I really liked how the designer connected the words and let some of the swirls overlap them. These swirls have a very strong Art-Nouveau appearance as they are heavily detailed and there is more focus on the illustration than on the type.

One of my old sketches:

Sketches & Development

I had the idea that quills will be floating around the type and towards the book like words floating off of the page. There was going to be a mixture of flow and structure, so I kept in mind that I wanted my type to remain in a set boundary. I too want the illustration to be dominant but not so much that the type disappears behind it.

At first I was going to display all of the information on the same page but, once again, after looking at how I did the DPS design for Moby Dick I decided to feature my name and "FTWeekend" on the back cover. 

FMP (BA): DPS - Feedback & Reactions

I went into university today to print all of the DPS that I had done so far and asked my classmates and my lecturer for some feedback. All in all, the feedback I got was really good and there aren't many changes that I needed to make.

Below I have included all of the spreads that I showed to them and wrote beneath them what they said and what versions they chose. Those that are blank are ones that didn't require any adjustments. 

Feedback

Nelson Mandela

I got really positive feedback for this design, and the only thing that I would have to adapt (if I have the time) was to redo the type on the banner just to neaten it up a little bit.

J: I really like this as I think it's a strong design.

The Raven

My classmates really liked this design but they felt that they preferred the feathered background, so I am going to make the writing white and take out the white box as it detracted the attention away from the main illustration.

One of my close friends pointed out that some of the feathers in the patterned background were cut off at the top so I would have to go back to my original file to adjust it slightly.

FMP (BA): It Always Seems Impossible - DPS

For my Nelson Mandela design I decided to flick back to my old sketch where I had drawn up several layouts. The one I wanted to go for was where I only had the banner with his prison number on it, and his name beneath it. The background would be white as I want to keep this design as minimalist as possible - a heavy contrast to my other designs. This would then provide the viewer a small chance to breathe before turning over to another 'filled' design.

Before I moved onto designing the other page, however, I needed to make some small changes to my existing design. When I had done this design - it seems so long ago - I had asked for feedback and one of them was to delete his name from the banner and create an 'end' to it. Otherwise the banner would look like chains which isn't the connotation I want to produce. 

To do this I used the eraser tool to erase his name, and copied and pasted the 'end' of the banner that was at the top. I had roughly drawn a guideline for it, so I just shifted it so that it rests atop of it. Using the transform tool I flipped it horizontally so that it fits on the end. Then I used the brush and the eraser tool to smoothen it slightly. 

FMP (BA): Not all Those Who Wander Are Lost - DPS

With my the Raven DPS safely out of the way and awaiting feedback I can now work on my other DPS designs, and the first one that I want to do is the J.R.R. Tolkien quote. I am a big fan of his work and have always loved the little sketches of the maps in the books, so I used them as a big source of inspiration for this design.

I had the idea of just carrying the design on as if it was a map, possibly just using the same tea-stained background as I did before. They actually have a really good format so I might just use theirs as a reference. I really like how the compass' and the name of the map are laid out and drawn, so I thought the best place to start was with the book title and author's name. It would be nice to practice uncial handwriting again!

As it had been a while since I had done uncial lettering I allowed myself a couple of hours just to practice with the letters I was going to use. I first started with the ones I had already done before, and after a while I was beginning to get used to it again so I tried out different letters.

It didn't take me long until I was able to actually write out "the fellowship of the ring" with ease, so at least I had that section ready. I had to practice several times on how to write the uppercase K but once I got the hang of that I was able to write out "J.R.R Tolkien".

I was now able to do both lines and so on another page I used black in and wrote them out.

FMP (BA): Inspiration for Book Spreads

After the problems I faced when it came to designing the DPS for "The Raven", I have decided to compile a list of inspirational book spreads to help me with my future designs and to explain my inspirations for previous ones.

Fursy Teyssier/Les Discrets - http://www.lesdiscrets.com/

I have mentioned that I haven't managed to find the actual copy of his designs as it is removed from their website, so instead I had to use an image that I had looked at over a year ago from one of my previous projects.

Instead of analysing the illustration I shall only look at the format, which is what I'll do for the other spreads.

What really caught my eye was the way the illustration was clearly dominant as it slightly overlaps onto the other page, and is in such deep, dark colours that the text (which although appears to be in black) looks muted in comparison.

The structure of the text is quite unusual as well as there are several indents, especially beside the number 2 in Roman numerals. I quite like the fact that it's a mixture of a very strict, traditional, left-aligned text and then they have this break right at the end which really sets it apart.

To summarise, I am inspired by:

• The mixture of traditional & contemporary design
• A light background with a dark illustration - it really brings out the illustration

FMP (BA): The Raven DPS

I have decided to do this project separate from my other DPS designs that I had done so far as my process was a bit chaotic; I couldn't make my mind up about this design and kept going backwards and forwards, that even I am confused with what I did sometimes.

The Raven

For my Edgar Allan Poe piece I only really had one decorative font on there, so there was a possibly of either going with the same font or produce another one. I therefore produced four versions: the one that's already been done; two script styles in different thicknesses; and one sans serif with the same width and height as the sans serif I had drawn for my book cover.

I practised with my dip pen on the bottom of the page but it didn't really carry that thick-thin stroke effect I was looking for, so instead I just went with what I already had done with micron.

I scanned all of my versions in to have a closer look at what I had, and from this I picked out the advantages and disadvantages of each one.

FMP (BA): DPS Spread Designs

I've been a bit stuck with my book cover design so I thought that instead of lingering on it, I would move on to producing designs for my DPS so that I could carry on churning some creativity. I am worried that if I don't do any designing or sketching that I would lose inspiration... So here's a way to solve that.

The first one I worked with was for "The Fault in Our Stars" by John Green, with the quote "My thoughts are stars I cannot fathom into constellations". I had a couple of solid idea of what I wanted it to look like which I quickly jotted down alongside my ideas for all of the other spreads:

-

The Fault in Our Stars 

Sketch

My first idea was to write the author's name and book title in the exact same format as I had done on the other page, so I lay a piece of paper over my design and lightly traced it's baseline. I then drew my cap-height and median lines in before writing out the title and name. For this I wanted to keep to the same typestyle as I had previously used.

My second idea was to use the same typestyle but on a straight line, and my third to just do it in sans serif on a straight line.

FMP (BA): Book Cover - Design Process

The Final Sketch

With all of my elements ready - the layout sketch and type - I could now work on my final sketch. I'm hoping that by planning ahead that this process would be a lot easier, and I jotted down the measurements of my type on a spare piece of paper to help me out a little in terms of composition.

Getting the dimensions right was a priority because I want to make sure that everything is aligned, and this proved a lot trickier than I thought it would for the curved lines. I managed to tackle this problem by laying everything out as straight lines. Each line had to be the same width as the type I had prepared before so I used the line in the middle that I had drawn previously as the centre point for my lines. I then drew around the edge of the plate, making sure that it matched up to those straight lines. I had to do this several times but I got there in the end. 

Once all of the guidelines were drawn I put in some more guidelines for each individual letter which also took a while to do. Fortunately my dimensions were correct so I didn't have to change anything at all. 

Then I started to draw out my characters and went from top to bottom so that I didn't smudge anything.
I used a 08 micron for the top line, 03 for "of" and "FTWeekend", and both 02 and 03 for "Quotes as well as the book illustration. The other illustrations were done in 01 and 02. All in all, I used a lot of micron pens!

FMP (BA): Drafting out the Type

I have an idea of what kind of type style to go for; it has to be professional, easy-to-read, and good to work in a relatively small space. I want it to also appear quite friendly with a hint of decoration.

I had originally done this type process in two stages; one before I had come up with my "final" idea, and one before.

The "Before" Stage

For the before stage I just wrote out the whole line out a few times in different styles; one was done in serif that was inspired by my "Nevermore" piece, a script typeface, and a mixture of the script and serif. Even though I liked the script idea I am worried that it appears too feminine, and the first serif looked too strict. The third idea softened the serif style slightly but I still wasn't too sure about it because of it's slight angle as it might not work for the book layout.

I decided to carry on doing a few more styles to see which one has the right voice for my design.

Annotations

1. Too feminine and girly - better for girly books or children's books - although I do like the uppercase letters

FMP (BA): Book Cover - Initial Sketches & Development

I carried out my sketches over a few days because I really struggled to come up with fresh ideas. It proved to be much harder to create sketches for the book cover than quotes because there was a lack of "voice" or storyline to follow. I know that I need to produce something professional like the Penguin Classic book designs but because they are quite clean and professional I found it quite restricting.

I started with a small doodle (that actually turned out pretty nice) and from then onwards I started to sketch several compositions from what I've learnt from Penguin Classics. I wanted to mix in some "novelty" elements and loved the way Jim Tierney presented his titles and noticed that there was an element of Art Deco in his borders. Whenever I think of Art Nouveau and Art Deco I think of decadence and the beginnings of a new society, which would be great for this book cover because I want to prove that there has been a slow growth of illustration/typography in book covers.

I started to attempt to break out of the structured mould I found myself in and my eyes kept flicking back to my first doodle so I decided to take it a step further and to do more sketches on it. I wasn't too sure if I needed to present my name on the front cover... From my research I have learnt that most books just feature the "author" on an inside page. I took my name out completely and just scribbled in an area where I would write "Oxford Literary Festival" or "FTWeekend". 

On the next page I developed the type doodle even further by thinking of a centred composition and mixing it with another typeface style before coming up with an idea where the type takes up the whole page (something that I was inspired to do after seeing how well this script lettering book looked). I then took it to the next step and tried to neaten the angle and kerning up but I found myself struggling because I felt as if I was restricted to a small area, and my words flowed a lot more when I did it freehand. 

FMP (BA): Inspiration - Book Covers

Penguin Classics

I have mentioned during my Oxford Literary Festival Analysis that I will look at some Penguin classic book covers as I believe that they hold a very traditional and clean appearance which reflects the nature of the Oxford Literary Festival website. The target audience is very important to me so it is ideal to create something that is aimed towards them. 

Instead of analysing book cover by cover, I shall just create a mood board so that I can pin-point any reoccurring features. 

image sources: all from http://www.penguinclassics.co.uk/ par the last one on the first line which is from flickr (but designed by Penguin Classics)

The first line are book from the 19th century but have more of a focus on illustrated patterns. Another running aspect in their designs is that they use the same serif font for the book title and a sans serif in uppercase for the author, although for Moby Dick and Alice in Wonderland they used the same font for the author's name. The position of these are usually centred but vary in terms of being right at the centre, top or bottom. 

The second line also features books from the 19th century but they have a more serious format in the sense that there are strong barriers to separate the paintings/photographs from the author's name and book title. This restricts the painting despite it having a larger surface area than the type and creates the appearance of being aimed at more at adults rather than teenagers or children. 

The type of paintings shown produces connotations of the upperclass because such paintings were extremely expensive and are normally shown in an art gallery or in castles where royals requested portrait paintings. This then makes the book cover seem as if it's aimed at an intellectual audience who takes reading literature seriously. 

The third line is a mixture of covers that didn't fit in the structure of the first two. 

FMP (BA): Prototypes

Now that I have started to consider doing the book cover design I thought that it was time to produce some rough prototypes so that I can get an idea of how I'm going to lay out my pages. If they're going to be double-sided then some of the designs would be separated onto different pages in order to look good when bound.

For my first prototype I used 6 sheets of paper, and have used the same method as my Harry Potter book in terms of what they put on the first couple of pages. Then I wrote out where all of my designs would be. I managed to have lots of spare pages so I just carried on numbering them for now.

Once done I separated them all out, and took a photo of one side of the DPS' and then another photo of the other side

FMP (BA): Oxford Literary Festival Analysis

I have decided to look at designing the book covers now instead of doing another quote because, according to my weekly timetable, I should finish the book covers by the next two weeks. Another reason is that if I do go and do another quote, I would become so absorbed by it that the covers will be left at the last minute so the design wouldn't be as good because it would've been rushed.

I am a bit unsure what kind of typographic style to go for for the book covers so I looked back at the Oxford Literary Festival website. The website is the best place for me to gather information as I haven't seen it advertised elsewhere. I have briefly looked at it right at the beginning of the project [here] but haven't really analysed the aesthetics. 

screenshots taken from http://oxfordliteraryfestival.org/

Typography

When I visited the website this time I mainly concentrated on the type they've used, and I can see that they favour serif typefaces. Even the smaller pieces of text is done with the serif font, and it appears that they just used the one but in different techniques - bold, italic, etc - to make it look like there's a variation. 

The serif font is softened slightly by having smooth curves and very short serifs, instead of the usual hairline serifs that are showcased in high-end magazines and newspapers. This sets a slightly friendlier tone to the website. This could be due to readability as well because it would be harder to read bigger chunks of text is the type had longer, thinner serifs. The letters in some of the headlines are really close together - so they have small kerning - which wouldn't be possible if they used a more 'serif' serif font. 

Colour Scheme

They have used the 'traditional' colour scheme, black and white, for the whole of their website and the only spots of colour are shown in the photographs and logos of sponsoring companies. Even the children's section is done in black and white with coloured headlines and photographs. 

These coloured headlines are normally muted which diminishes the childish appearance that colourful websites brings. This also means that the website isn't overrun by colours because they are in soft shades which blends nicely with the white background. 

Location

I believe that the location itself is very important for the event. Oxford University is ranked as one of the top universities in England (as shown here) which means that the book festival is aimed for serious literary enthusiasts who know exactly what they are talking about in terms of literature.  

Conclusion:

The above aspects have shown me that Oxford Literary Festival portrays a very traditional appearance with it's black and white colour scheme and serif font. It hints at an middle to upperclass audience especially when they use terms such as "Sheldonian Events"(possibly named after the Sheldonian theatre) and the fact that it isn't advertised in public media. I wouldn't have known of this literary festival had I not searched for it in Google, and I only saw a tiny snippet of a poster within a newspaper article. 

Even in this small advertisement they have used a minimal amount of colour and a serif typeface. The even is called "FTWEEKEND" but it is the Oxford Literary Festival as this year it is sponsored by FTWeekend. 

The illustration/photomanipulation is also kept at a minimal amount of decoration so the advertisement has an overall clean and professional appearance. There is plenty of white space for the elements to breathe, although there isn't a lot of information in terms of where the event is hosted as only the website URL is provided.

From this research I have gathered I will be producing a book cover design that holds a very traditional appearance, most possibly with a script typeface or serif, with only a slight hint of colour. I am glad that I have analysed the website because I am now able to produce a book cover that portrays a similar appearance to it in order to create a connection between my book and the event.

If there were one thing I would do differently is that I would've done this analysis a lot sooner, probably at the very start of this project, although I am glad that all of my designs are done in black and white. The only colour piece is the one I did for Dr. Seuss although I think that is acceptable because it is very Dr-Seuss-style. 

My next step is to have a look at some 'classic' book covers such as Penguin classics as well as poetry books and typography books.