WARNING: Very long post :)
As this brief is to create a new book cover and for the carries war brief in particular states that they would like the book cover to attract younger people as well as parents, I thought that I should look at modern puffin covers to see what works currently within the market. All of the puffin book covers are so different, it is clear that there is no straight forward recipe to creating a book cover. This makes it quite hard because any style or layout could work as long as it is eye catching and fits the book. One thing that is noticeable when looking at all of the book covers is that they are pretty simple but very effective. I have looked at a few different book designs, I think that some of them were previous entrants into the penguin book design competition, and discussed what I think works best and what I think doesn't work very well.
The first three book covers that I looked at were covers for Grimm's fairy tales, they're all very different but work really well in their own way. In the first cover i think that the way the text works with the image is very nice, the trees give it a lovely frame. I also really like the hand drawn look that it haves it gives it a very modern feel, the colours used also give the cover a really nice mood that fits the books theme.
This book cover works really well in my opinion because it is very quirky and modern looking but still has a raw un processed look which personally I love. I think the font also works really nicely because it fits so well with the style of the drawing. The black used throughout the image adds an undertone of darkness to the image and this communicates the darkness of the books contents well. I think that the back of this book cover could have been slightly improved because it looks very bland compared to the front of the book but other than that I think the book is very well composed.
The final Grimm book cover that I looked at is very dark compared to the other two but I think it works just as well. Although I personally really like this cover, in my opinion I think that it may be slightly too dark for children and it could scare them. Design wise, I think it works wonderfully as it is composed really nicely, I like how the tongue is used to describe the path that the children are walking on. I also really like the bright yellow and red against the dark black and grays that are used. The font is also very fitting as it looks a bit creepy like the rest of the cover.
Overall I think that I like the second cover the best out of the Grimm covers because I feel as though it is appropriate for children of all ages and genders and it has the right amount of darkness to not scare a child.
This James and the Giant Peach book cover is more simplistic compared to the other book covers that I have looked at but it works so well for the story. It describes the shape of the peach using all of the characters from the book, I think this is a very clever thought out book design. The typography, I feel, references Quentin Blake's style which is really nice as it brings the book design back to the original style that would have been used to illustrate this book. I also like the peach stone on the back. I think that the simplicity of this book cover works nicely
The next book cover, A Little Princess, is a lot more illustrated in a traditional sense as even though it could have been digitally created, it looks like it has been painted. I think the colours work really well and make the book have a lovely, happy look and feel to it. I really like how all of the main characters are featured on the cover because I feel as though it makes me want to read the book to learn all about them. The typography interacts and overlaps the illustration which is quite unique but I think it works well as it makes the image look like the typography is a well considered part of the whole image instead of looking like an afterthought.
The cover below caught my eye when I was looking at different designs because the composition of image and typography work so well together. I love the brush strokes used on the otter because it makes the illustration look interesting whilst remaining realistic, The really fluid position that the otter also makes the image flow really nicely. The only thing that i'm not too sure about the design of this cover is the authors name because it looks quite separate from the design, it looks a little bit like it was just put on as an after thought. Other than that this is a really lovely book design.
After looking at all of these book covers, it is hard to pin point what works best for a cover design as they are all so different, but all work so well. I think that the key to creating a great book design is to really consider the imagery and typography and how they work together, but at the same time always referencing to the themes in the book and the target audience.
