Book cover inspiration? - Oranges are not the only fruit

Recently iv'e been looking for ideas and inspiration for the cover of 'Oranges are not the only fruit' because, although there is a lot of information and different themes in the book I wasn't getting many ideas or imagery for a cover design. I have been keeping an eye out and looking all over for some influences, here are a range of things that I have found around that have given me ideas. Hopefully this blog post will help me sort out the ideas that I have and help me to realise what ideas that I like the best.  

 I came across this pantone puzzle book whilst looking on the internet, I really liked how on the right hand page had a shape made out of block colour and a pattern shining through behind it. I thought this style would look great as a simplistic cover and it would also work well because I could take great inspiration from 1960's patterns as thats when the book is set. it would also be quite fitting if I used the shape of an orange for the cut out, as the book mentions oranges a lot, although the title suggests that it doesn't. I might try out a cover in this style after doing some thumbnails.  

Another image that gave me a good idea is a book cover that already exists by Jamie Keenan, it uses a pretty rough pen drawing but the design is pulled together by a professional, clean, digital font. I really like the way the image is drawn on lined notebook paper as opposed to plain white.  I think that something with a similar idea to this would work for 'Oranges are not the only fruit' as the mother in the story writes notes a lot. I think it would work to create a sort of doodle page but using themes from the book for doodles for example a cross, oranges, a bible ect.   

Whilst I was researching paper cutting for my other book cover, I came across this image. It really sparked an idea to create something using an orange shape with the title cut out of the paper and some really effective lighting. I think I could try this out and it could look really effective whilst remaining simple and clean. 

The last thing that has really inspired me lately is a video for the song Anclebiters by Paramore. I spotted this video out of the corner of my eye because it looked so pretty. It was created by an artist/ illustrator/animator called Jordan Bruner. I really love the style and colours that are used, they are very eye catching. I think that a book cover with a similar vibe to this video would create a very modern twist on the book. this could be a good idea to look into as I feel this would attract a more modern audience to this classic book. 

I will now create some thumbnails using these images as inspiration and see how my ideas develop. I might work on a few different covers to see what progresses best. 

Using the laser cutter

As I had created all of my designs and cut them out by hand previously to practice, I discovered that it would take me a very long time to cut out everything that I needed by hand and I wouldn't be able to get it done in time to a very high professional standard. Because of this I decided to look into ways that I could fix this and decided that trying out a laser cutter would be my best option. I tracked down the laser cutter in uni and got some help from an experienced technician. He told me to make all of the shapes that I wanted cutting out in illustrator and told me the specifications to save all of the lines as. These are some of the the templates that I made for the laser cutter. 

  

When I went to use the laser cutter, I tried out a different things for example I tried putting paper on top of my mount board to reduce the scorching that the laser leaves as it was not my original intention to have scorch marks. The paper technique didn't reduce the scorching much. But I decided after seeing the final cutting that I really liked the effect that the scorching gives as it adds much more character to the overall image and it will hopefully make the final image look slightly aged to fit in more with the time period that the book is set in. Here are a few of the pieces from the laser cutter they are not at all in the final composition, I just arranged them in a random order, I will upload better images of all of my laser cuttings on a different post. 

   Overall I found the laser cutter really helpful and although I was heavily assisted, it seemed quite simple to use. I would love to use this technique in the future as I really enjoyed the process and I can see good potential to make lots of different products with the aid of this technology. 

Artist research: Andrea Dezsö

Whilst looking through the book Paper Craft 2 I came across an artist called Andrea Dezsö she is an artist that works across a huge range of media's. some of her paper cut work uses a similar idea to Hari and Deepeti in the way that the artist forms nicely lit silhouette scenes but instead of keeping the scene plain white, and relying on shadows to create the full effect, she uses coloured paper to add different moods and atmospheres to her images. I love the effect that this gives to her work and makes the worlds look so interesting, they really do draw you into them. 
I think for my Carries war book cover I am going to stick with an all white scene for now to see how that looks, I might even experiment with different coloured lighting effects. but the coloured paper idea is definitely something to consider and try out, I might even utilise this idea for my oranges are not the only fruit book cover. 

Oranges are not the only fruit

For my second book cover design I have chosen to illustrate a cover for Oranges are not the only fruit because it is a fiction book and I feel like it will be easier for me to read that rather than freakanomics although that does sound interesting too. I feel as though I can get more information and symbolism from a fiction book because it has a fully developed story with lots of different characters and themes. As a starting point I thought I would have a look at previous book covers that have been designed for this book. My next step is to read the book and think about what id like to create for the cover it shouldn't take me to long to read so I can start on my concepts quite soon.   

 Im not to keen on the above cover, personally i'm not too fond of the illustrative style but there are a few other things that I don't think work that well. For example the border is very strange for a book cover because it just goes down one side of the image, and I feel although the text is slightly boring and harsh against the illustration that has barely any black in it. 

 I think the above cover is quite nice in the way that it gives a vintage classic a modern look. The quality of the drawing looks modern and the fact that the character has tattoo's really brings it into this day in age because when the book was set tattoo's would have been very taboo. The bright use of Orange against the washed out drawing gives the cover a really eye catching pop as well.  

 I do like the above cover but I think that compared to the one above it, it is not as strong of an image, I think this is because it is less focused compared to the other cover and I think the negative space at the top of the page makes the image look un balanced. I know that there is text there but I think if it was re arranged a bit it would work better. 

In my opinion this is the strongest cover I think its because it is very unique compared to all of the other covers. I like the more simplistic look and the composition of the text and image, I think they work well together. I also really like the colours that have been used in this cover because I think that the orange bible really stands out against the blocky black. 

Overall I have concluded that i like the more modern looking covers so I would like to go down the route of creating a more modern looking cover rather than a cover that represents the time period that the book was written in. 

Thumbnails

I did some quick sketches of cover variations, they're not very detailed as they are just thumbnails but they give me an idea of how the compositions will look in my head. Drawing out my ideas also helped me realise what would work best where. I realised that I would have to think about the typography placement a lot so it helped me to visualise that as well.
I think I am going to work on and develop the first thumb nail as I think it is the most visually interesting. If that doesn't work out I have a few other designs that I can develop instead.

Typography

I am going to do a lot more research into typography but for a starting point i thought i would type in 1940's fonts into google and i found a website called my fonts, it was quite helpful because you can search fonts by decade. A lot of different fonts came up for the 40's and they might not be historically accurate but they resemble and relate to fonts that might have been used in the 40's, some are modern and some are more old fashioned. It gave me a bit of help and ideas anyway, now I can build my research up from here and do more research on appropriate typography.   

Colour Palette research

I know that if I decide to use colour for my image, I want to hint towards a more vintage feel as the setting of the book is the 40's. Im not yet sure weather to go with a classic vintage colour palette or a more modern but still vintage looking colour palette. To help me decide I went to the website colour lover to help me out with ideas for colours. Here are a few modern and classic colour palettes that I really liked. When I start to piece together my image I think that will also help me to decide which colours will work best.

 

Artist research: Hari and Deepti

Hari and Deepeti create really beautiful scenes using just plain white paper, They look a bit boring to begin with but after some very clever lighting they are transformed into the most magical looking scenes, they really do transport you into another world. The scenes that they create are focused on storytelling, they depict adventures and travels from all around the world. I would love to try out this technique for my book cover as it is really unique and eye catching. I don't know if it would work for carries war as it is a book for a younger audience and the lack of colour might not attract them as much. On the other hand it could be really effective and work well. Ill have to work with a trail and error attitude to see if this kind of idea will work. It was really hard to chose because all of their pieces are beautiful, but here are some of their designs that I think work best.

Image before lighting and photography

Image after lighting and  being photographed

Yew Trees

In the part of Carries war that I would like to depict on the cover there are a lot of trees, in particular yew trees. Yew trees usually have very wide trunks and a big bushy foliage apart from in autumn and winter when they shed their leaves to reveal long spindly branches that look quite whimsical but at the same time slightly scary and twisted.  
I decided to have a look at some yew trees for some reference to help me re create them. I looked at yew trees in the autumn/ winter time because I feel as though it will add a bit more of a creepy look, this will work well as the part of the book that I am focusing the cover design on is quite scary. Here are some images that I liked and thought would be good to work and get ideas from. 

I decided to then simplify the design of a yew tree a bit whilst still keeping it recognisable, so it was possible to make a paper cut. I created a little trial to see how it would work out. I drew the design first, I drew the left side slightly different to the right to see how I liked the branches to look, I decided that the branches on the right side look a lot better, then i carefully cut it out. I am pleased with how the test has worked and will build and develop this design for my final trees. 

Carries War: Book cover idea

My idea for the book cover for Carries War is to make the book look more interesting to the younger reader as the brief specified that it should make young people want to pick up the book as well as parents. to make the cover look exiting, I decided to focus my idea on a part of the book where Carrie and her brother Nick are walking to Mrs Gotobed's house. They have to walk through a scary dark woodland full of yew trees and they think they are getting chased by something. This is quite an exiting mysterious part of the book. I feel like a creepy but rather whimsical book cover will excite a younger audience and draw them into the book. the characters in the book have to walk through this woodland area a lot throughout the story so I feel although it is a good focal point for the cover. 

Here is a part of the book that describes how the trees look: 'The yew trees in the Grove were dark green and so old that they had grown twisted and lumpy, like arthritic fingers. And in Carrie’s dream, the fingers reached out for her, plucking at her hair and her skirt as she ran. She was always running by the end of this dream, running away from the house, uphill towards the railway line.'

Paper cut practice

I thought I would practice my paper cutting technique at home over the weekend so I decided to make a christmas card because I needed to make some anyway so thought I might as well practice something that I need to whilst not having the pressure of it being for this project. It went really well and I feel more confident about this process for my book cover, my technique is not perfect yet but its really progressing. Now I will start work on the actual paper cutting for the book cover. Here is the cars that I made, I designed it digitally using my drawing tablet then printed it and cut it out of red paper. I then scanned it back into the computer so it would be easier to re produce onto cards.

Waterstones trip: Book cover research

A few days ago I went to the waterstones in Newcastle and looked at different book covers that I liked. There was a large variety of different styles that caught my eye, this might be a long post because there were so many books that I liked. I think I will just include a line of text under each photo stating what I like about the cover just to keep the post a bit shorter. 

 The contrast of the bright rainbow spine against the realistic subtle drawing of a robin is what attracted me to this book, I feel as though it added a modern element to a classic looking book cover. 

This book cover attracted me because I like the use of white and orange against the harsh black background, I also like how the imagery looks like it has been done using a paper cut or digital technique and the text has a very hand  rendered look to it, it adds a unique look to the cover. 

I think that the colour use on this cover is really lovely, the off white cream colour really sets it off nicely and also gives it a more retro feel. the use of three colours is also really good because it makes the cover more striking.

The above cover has really good use of typography and although the cover is very simple I think that it works really well because it has strong concise imagery. 

 I think the very hand drawn look works really well for this book cover because book covers usually have a very finished pristine look to them but it is a nice refreshing change to see something like this that isn't prefect and looks very raw. I think that the more finished looking typography might help with tying it all together and making the book look professional.  

 The above book has a really nice lino cut look to it,  I like that it looks more like a piece of art rather than a book cover. it is very unique for a book cover and thats what really attracts me to it. I also really love the use of colour because it is quite a strange selection to have chosen it it works really nicely. 

The above cover is very simple and mainly focuses on the typography, it is very simple but effective. I think that the colour choices are what makes this book look really nice and elegant. 

 Through the woods cover is very bold and dark, i really like the use of the black red and white. I don't think these colours are appropriate for the book covers that I am designing but it works very well for this book cover. This cover really draws me in because it looks very dark and mysterious. 

Again its the hand drawn quality of this book cover that really draws me into this book because its not usually something that you see an the front of a book. I think this book is more of an an art book but I still really like the design of it

The above book os so unique because the imagery is made from tissue paper, I think this is so unusual and creative. It is very effective and delicate looking. This book is helpful because I am planning on creating unique book covers using paper cutting and ideas like this are helpful to me. 

This life of Pi book is so simple but so effective. The shapes and colours that are used are very striking also the fish underneath the boat add a more interesting element to the image. 

The cover for Gulp has a very clever use of imagery and typography, it works very well and when I saw it I thought it was really impressive looking for such a simplistic design.

The Wolf Princess cover is very simple and whimsical, it looks like a fairytale book cover. I really like the use of snow interacting with the typography I feel although it draws you into that world a bit more.  

From this waterstones trip I have found that a lot of different things look good on book covers and its getting the right balance of typography and imagery that really helps the book look like a finished cover. I am going to really consider the typography in relation to the imagery that I create and hopefully that will make my cover more successful. 

Book cover research

I thought I would have a look at some of my favourite book covers from the books that I own and find out a bit about who created them and why I like them. When I went to my book shelf there were a few that really stood out to me straight away so I thought I would write about them. 

'The book of lost things' has a book cover designed by Rob Ryan, an artist known throughout the world for his paper cut art. This book cover is vital to my research because it is done using the medium that I want to use to create my book cover. I love the colours and composition that has been used, I think it really makes the book stand out with the use of bright red for the background. I also like the subtle bits of imagery such as the keys and the old man used throughout the cover that give hints to things in the book. the cover doesn't give any of the story away and makes it look mysterious which makes me want to read it more. It also has a strong use of typography which is what the penguin brief asks for so this book cover has helped me out in terms of ideas for the typography. 

'The girl who saved the king of Sweden' and 'The 100 year old man who climbed out of the window and disappeared' are two very similar book covers that were created by Jonathan Pelham, a book cover designer from London. These books were both written by the same author and thats why they have the same style design. Although these book covers aren't created using paper cut I still think they look like they could have been because they both use very blocky colours. Although these covers mainly use simple shapes to make up the images they still maintain a very illustrative look. I think that my favourite things about these covers are the bright eye catching colours that are used and how the typography is used, these books both have a lot of text on the front but the way that it has been handled doesn't make it overpowering at all. looking at this book cover might help me if I decided to do a book cover for 'Oranges are not the only fruit' as that has quite a long title. 

The last book cover that really caught my was 'Mr Penumbras 24 hour bookstore' designed by Adam Simpson, It has a very graphic cover that focuses a lot on the typography but it cleverly incorporates imagery linking to the story in the book. I think that this book does a really good job of subtly liking the cover to the story as the cover is very modern and looks computer generated whilst still using slightly older colours, and the story incorporates both an old traditional book shop and very modern technology. I think it is the style and boldness of the imagery that attracts me to this book cover. The colours are also very bold and striking so that draws mw in a lot as well.  I would like to use this book cover for colour inspiration as they work quite well as modern retro colours. 

 Overall looking at these book covers has helped me to realise what I like in a book cover and I have noticed that they all have a strong use of colour and especially typography. This is something I am going to try and research and learn about because typography is not my strong point but I really love how it looks and i'm really interested in it.