Book cover research: Eleanor and Park

As for the 'Oranges are not the only fruit' I am creating a pretty contemporary cover for a story that is set in the 60's I felt that it was appropriate to reference the book 'Eleanor and Park' by Rainbow Rowell. It is a romantic novel that was written in 2013 but is set in 1986. I am aware that 1986 wasn't that long ago but the cover very much looks like this is a very contemporary story. Two book covers have been released for it and they are both very modern and don't reference the time period that the story is set in at all. Despite this the book has been incredibly successful. I think it is a really good thing sometimes for older books or books set in a different time period to have modern covers to open the book up to a new younger market that usually wouldn't consider even picking the book up. In my opinion If this book cover had been done in a style that referenced the time it was set in, I don't think it would have been half as successful. I know they say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover but its clear that people will and do, do that because it gives the first impression of whats inside. I really like both of these covers and although I haven't yet read the book these covers encourage me to, and I think I will when I have some spare time. 

Eleanor and Park book cover, Image taken from:
http://pixgood.com/eleanor-and-park-book-cover.html

Emeanor and Park Book cover 2, Image taken from:
 http://pixgood.com/eleanor-and-park-book-cover.html

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. 

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.