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.
After looking at the sketches I had done on the previous couple of pages - and noticing that they looked really similar - I stopped for a while.
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When I looked back at my sketches after my break I noticed that it was missing some illustration, because my previous designs I had done looked stronger when there was something illustrative in it. It's funny because I only thought of this after I looked at my Hello Kitty poster... Strange. So I included a little sketch of a book and tried out some different compositions but soon found myself trying to include my calligraphic sketch every now and then.
I tried to draw influences from other designs such as 3D lettering that Victorian posters and Bob and Roberta Smith did so well. However, this brought an element of "fun" to the design and I wasn't too sure if it was suitable for my target audience.
I kept going round and round in circles so I thought that the best thing to do is stop, take a breather, and see if I could come up with something different that looks more professional.
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It wasn't until a couple of days after that I went back to this design, as I took some time out to dig around for some inspiration. Surprisingly enough, my inspiration for this next set of designs derived from Art Nouveau which is probably from the way Jim Tierney drew his borders on his design. Even though Art Nouveau had inspired me from my earlier designs, I had a different reaction to it this time. I still used what I had done before but tweaked it slightly.
For example, I was inspired by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's design for Jane Avril (the Moulin Rouge) in a sense that I wanted the quill to create a border for my design, which gradually moved onto the quill being the centre-point before making it into a pattern with some books. This pattern would mimic the ones shown in some of the Penguin Classics I had looked at before.
My main focus was on the illustration, and at this stage I didn't even want to think about the type (apart from in terms of composition) because I felt that the reason why I was so stuck before was because I was concentrating on the type so much that I put aside all of my other ideas.
The layout that I thought was most successful out of this set of new designs was number four as it resembled closely to Penguin Classics but I had my own take on it, meaning that it contained my "signature" style. This format would work well for my target audience because it's clean and simple and even though the pattern would take up the background, the main focus is on the title because of the white box (or coloured box) it'll be in.
I came up with three more ideas but I was still leaning on the one I had highlighted before. However I had come up with an idea for the back cover (shown in no.3) that I shall refer to after I've completed the front cover.
Reflective Thinking - Summary
I felt that I had perhaps spent too long on this design but when I think about it, I had spent just over a week on it. This allowed me to have time to gather inspiration instead of forcing myself to come up with ideas. I had room to breathe, and I feel that I was more motivated to do this design when I wasn't stressing about how little time I had. Plus, I actually did more work in two hours of feeling inspired than I did when I was fretting over creating a design in a day.
The design that I have in mind would work well with my target audience because it closely resembles Penguin Classics, therefore it has a very clean and professional design. The main focus will be on the title which was why I have created a box to separate it from the illustrated pattern.
With my sketches done I can now focus on first creating my pattern (which will be fairly easy to do as I have done it before) and then move onto drafting out the type. When the type is sorted I can then put everything together!
Learning Outcomes:
[6] Developed skills of critical thinking, analysis and evaluation.
[9] Developed their ability to work with complex material, analyse problems and identify appropriate solutions.
For example, I was inspired by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's design for Jane Avril (the Moulin Rouge) in a sense that I wanted the quill to create a border for my design, which gradually moved onto the quill being the centre-point before making it into a pattern with some books. This pattern would mimic the ones shown in some of the Penguin Classics I had looked at before.
My main focus was on the illustration, and at this stage I didn't even want to think about the type (apart from in terms of composition) because I felt that the reason why I was so stuck before was because I was concentrating on the type so much that I put aside all of my other ideas.
The layout that I thought was most successful out of this set of new designs was number four as it resembled closely to Penguin Classics but I had my own take on it, meaning that it contained my "signature" style. This format would work well for my target audience because it's clean and simple and even though the pattern would take up the background, the main focus is on the title because of the white box (or coloured box) it'll be in.
I came up with three more ideas but I was still leaning on the one I had highlighted before. However I had come up with an idea for the back cover (shown in no.3) that I shall refer to after I've completed the front cover.
Reflective Thinking - Summary
I felt that I had perhaps spent too long on this design but when I think about it, I had spent just over a week on it. This allowed me to have time to gather inspiration instead of forcing myself to come up with ideas. I had room to breathe, and I feel that I was more motivated to do this design when I wasn't stressing about how little time I had. Plus, I actually did more work in two hours of feeling inspired than I did when I was fretting over creating a design in a day.
The design that I have in mind would work well with my target audience because it closely resembles Penguin Classics, therefore it has a very clean and professional design. The main focus will be on the title which was why I have created a box to separate it from the illustrated pattern.
With my sketches done I can now focus on first creating my pattern (which will be fairly easy to do as I have done it before) and then move onto drafting out the type. When the type is sorted I can then put everything together!
Learning Outcomes:
[6] Developed skills of critical thinking, analysis and evaluation.
[9] Developed their ability to work with complex material, analyse problems and identify appropriate solutions.
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