Carries war book cover concept

The overriding concept of this book cover was to focus on a part of the story where the two main characters go to visit their friend’s house. They go quite regularly so I thought that this would help children to picture that part of the story in their heads, It is also the part of the story that I found most interesting, it was very descriptive and gave me this wonderful magical but also creepy scene in my head. I wanted to create this scene in real life then photograph it in the hope that it would draw children into the scene, making them want to read the story themselves. I also thought I would make the scene have a slight orange glow to crate a warm feeling of nostalgia which would also draw adults into the book to buy it for their children. I feel although my concept brings an added element into this story helping children to expend their imagination and in turn be more interested in the story.

Carrie's War: Final design in the template

Here is the finished design Within the template that penguin set.

Overall I am pleased with how this design turned out, I might still play around with the blurb a bit before deadline to see if I can improve it in anyway.  I will now post an evaluation of this module in a separate post.

Carrie's War spine

To create the carries war spine I simply used the text from the front of the book and chose a colour foe the background that I thought brought the whole book together. I decided on a dusty brown colour as the front and back images had an orange/warm glow to them and I felt as though this colour was a nice  warm tone complemented the rest of the book. It looks quite plain on its own but with the rest of the book I think it works well.

Oranges are not the only fruit front cover

I used the letters that I made to create the title on the front of the page. Because the title was hand drawn I felt as though the author and quote should be done in digital typography to balance it out. To add some orange into the cover I created an orange band for the author name to go into. I then added a sad looking girl to the bottom of the page I feel as-though this gives the cover more balance than if it just had the text.  Here is a very rough digital copy that i started with only using text that I had scanned in. 

I  decided that this looked too plain so I re thought what should be on the cover and the composition of it.  this was when I decided to add the illustration of a girl to the bottom of the page and move the author name up to the top of the page. I also added the quote that goes on the front cover. There was also a shadow on the original lined paper so I re scanned some in to solve that issue. Here is those covers. 

I then decided to try out putting a thought bubble around the text to make it look like it was the girls thoughts. After doing this I decided that I didn't like it at all because it looked too clumsy and cluttered, plus I wanted it to look like a note as well as a thought, as if the girl has written her thoughts down, because there are a lot of notes written throughout the story.  

I went back to the second image for my final book cover design as I feel it was stronger being a bit more simple. The next step is to create the back cover to accompany this cover.

Editing the Carrie's War photograph in photoshop: back cover

After taking my photos for the book cover, I decided to play around with the levels and the hue/ saturation to try and get it looking how I would like. I wanted the definition between the layers to be more clear and I also wanted to warm the image up a bit to make it look like it had more of an orange glow, rather than a bright one, I also straightened it up. Im really pleased with how this has turned out but the real challenge for me now is to work out how i'm going to insert the blurb and barcode into the image so it still looks good. Here are the images before and after they have been edited.

Photographing my Carrie's war cover: back page

I started to photograph (with a lot of technical help) my book cover design for carrie's war as this is a vital part of my design. It was very tricky as the lighting has to be perfect to give the effect that I want for the cover. As I have layers of trees making the scene look like a forrest the lighting had to be played around a lot to make the image have lots of depth and shadows. I decided to start by photographing the image that will be on the back of the cover because it more simple than the front cover image and thought it might be good to start off with a more simple image. Here are a few of the photos that I started with (They're a bit wonky)

 We started off lighting it from above and the left side but it made the image look too flat and everything was all the same orangey colour so we tried a few different lighting and camera settings.

 This time the image still looked too flat but the colour had improved as it was more white rather than orange. I want the original image to look white so it will be easier if I want to change the colours in photoshop when I edit them.

 This image was getting closer yet again but was not quite there because there was more variation and depth between the laters with the way that the shadows fell but it wasn't quite right.

We decided to try it with the light closer to the image and try holding up tracing paper behind the set to soften the light this was creating even more depth but it still wasn't there

we then decided to try with lighting the set with the soft box from behind and this seemed to be the correct solution because it started to look a lot better. There was also a dimly lit light in front of the set to light the front of the image slightly. Now it was just a case of getting the composition and camera angle right. Here are the photos with the correct lighting.

 This is the first image where the depth was really working and the shadows were looking good but the camera angle needed to be moved around to make the image central.

 The camera angle on this image is improved from the last one but not completely right yet so we got a bit closer and straightened up the edges more.

Finally after a long morning of experimentation and lots of different lights and techniques being used we got the image just right. The next step is to edit the levels and colours a bit in photoshop to help the image reach its full potential.

Oranges are not the only fruit Title typography

For this cover I wanted to use a hand written style for the title of the book, I decided this because im not that good at digital typography and knowing what looks good where and when I just write it myself things turn out looking a lot better. I also thought this would look a bit more unique and interesting compared to a standard digital font. I just began randomly scrawling the words from the title onto a piece of scrap paper. I then decided which style of lettering that I liked for which words. When I had decided on my favourites and the order that they should go in, I re drew them the way that I wanted them on the page. I then scanned them in so I could compose the cover digitally. The paper had a few shadows on when I had scanned it so I am going to scan in a new piece of paper and move the text onto the new paper background. I really like how it is looking so far, the next step is to add the illustration of  the girl to the bottom of the page, the author name  and any text has to go on the front. 

artist research: Fran Meneses

I decided to have a look at Fran Meneses or better known as Frannerd for my research for my oranges are not the only fruit book cover. Fran is an illustrator that lives in Berlin she creates very cute little cartoon style drawings that often are based on real life things that happen day to day. She creates zines, cards, stickers and calendars along with a few other things on her etsy store and also makes youtube videos about her life as a free lance illustrator.  
I received one of her zines for christmas as a gift and it really inspired me with this book cover because I was really stuck with what to do for it so I took a break for a while and sat down and read the zine. I really liked the scrap book feel to it and I also am a big fan of how the different hand drawn typography all works together on one page so well. I also think that the delicate line quality is really nice. Overall I just really like cuteness and the simplicity of her drawings. Here a few different drawings that I really like and a video from her youtube channel. 

From the zine 'Perfect tree shapes' Photo taken from From: http://frannerdsblog.blogspot.co.uk/search?updated-max=2014-07-
01T12:29:00%2B02:00&max-results=10&start=10&by-date=false

Image taken from:
 http://frannerdsblog.blogspot.co.uk/search?updated-max=2014-07-01T12:29:00%2B02:00&max-results=10&start=10&by-date=false

Image taken from:
 https://www.dropbox.com/s/s899uf5c88jfsqd/Screenshot%202015-01-06%2011.21.22.png?dl=0

Oranges are not the only fruit experimentation

After drawing up my thumb nails I decided to have a play around with a few different ideas. I thought of creating a silhouette of someone so that it could be anyone that you want to imagine. I got the idea of carving it into an actual orange to see how it worked out. I tried it then photographed the orange with a few different lighting points to see how it looked.

I didn't like how this looked at all I just couldn't see how this would work on a book cover so I decided to forget this idea and try out another way of using a silhouette I tried out creating a digital one (I used my own head.) I think this actually looked okay but after I had created it I thought it looked familiar, then I remembered it was very, very similar to 'The Colour Purple' book cover and that book is the same genre as oranges are not the only fruit so I would definitely not be able to use this idea. Its okay though because I think that I can push this cover further and create something better anyway. Here I have inserted my designs and the design from 'The Colour Purple.'

After this experiment I've decided to go back to my thumbnails and have a re think of what I can do. I think there are a lot more options that I can try out.

Oranges are not the only fruit- Thumbnails

As I was reading through Oranges are not the only fruit I started sketching down some thumb nails for the book cover, they are very rough so don't mind the terrible drawing they were just to give me a few ideas in terms of composition and what kind of imagery I wanted to include on the front. When reading the book I was finding it hard to just picture one image that would work for the story so I drew up lots of very different sketches, using different parts of the book for imagery, to see what ideas that I think worked best. 
I decided from this that I liked the idea of using the top of the girls head and a thought bubble with the title of the book inside it. I liked this idea best because you cant see the characters full face, leaving some room for the readers imagination. I also thought this idea fit the way that the book is written well because its written from the girls internal monologue and her thoughts. I will now start to develop this idea further to see how it goes. 

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. 

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.   

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.'

Final Decision

I have finally decided to do the penguin and puffin brief for this module because penguin is a really big company to have this sort of opportunity with. The other option that I was contemplating was the traveling man brief to create a zine but I feel as though zines are something that I can continually work on and develop as a side project and then sell them or enter them into a shop to be sold with a small percentage taken off in the future if I wanted too.  I also feel as though because these competitions are only for students so I should utilise the opportunity whilst I still have it.

I have started reading one of the books from the list of books to chose from (Carries War) and I am almost finished reading it so after that I will make a mind map so I can think of all the ideas that I have and it will help me to think and narrow my ideas down to one concept. 

Front Cover - unique horn

This is the front cover of my narrative project for the story unique horn. I decided to keep the font of the title quite hand drawn looking as the idea of the book is mixing hand drawn and real elements so i didn't really want to start including digital fonts into it. I also decided to have an ice cream cone on the front so when people start reading the story and see that it is about unicorns and ponies they will get confused as to why there is an ice cream on the front. I also decided to have the cone covering some of the word 'unique' to make it look more 3D like the rest of the book. I think this worked well as it is simple but still looks fun and interesting.