Below is an extract from Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Using a single typeface of your choice, lay out the test in as inventive a way as possible. Experiment with the letters and words, using typographic principles you researched in earlier exercises to significantly alter the arrangement of the text, its rhythm and readability.

Think about design group Tomato’s definition of typography – ‘Sound as from’ – and how this concept might apply to your own work. Use the content of the text to inspire visual ideas. How might you experiment with the type to communicate something of the essence of the descriptive content? Think about how the designers you researched in the previous section e.g David Carson and El Lissitsky, would approach the test – or artists like Marimetti and Schwitters.

It is important that you play with the text, with individual letters and words. How experimental can you be in making expressive typographic designers? Can you reveal something of the character and nature of the letterform by experimenting with scale and orientation, so as simple unassuming letter becomes a monumental, almost sculptural form?

Think about the sound of the words you are working with, how can your typographic decisions help to communicate these? As a book designer, you might be more drawn to analog or digital ways of working. Whatever your preference, try to mix and match both approaches. Your work on paper might become a starting point for digital experimentation with this text, or print out your initial ideas, so that you can experiment with what happens when you start to cut, collage or physically alter the text in some way. This physical work can be scanned to kick start a new digital stage.

Read the text through once before starting to manipulate the type. Make several designed versions of this passage, or parts of it, spanning several pages if need be. Feel free to focus on certain aspects of the text, or use the whole text within your designs. Use your learning log to reflect your creative decision making as well as sharing the various stages of your process.

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I started off by reading the extract then decided to print off my own version of the text so I was able to make notes to start stimulating ideas.

To get a better understanding I was intrigued to find a little more out about the book and the story.

Written by Jules Verne in 1870, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is a book that tells us the story of three accidental visitors to an underwater world hosted by the mysterious Captain Nemo. They originally encounter the Nautilus in the Pacific Ocean as part of an expedition to find out what species of undiscovered whale has been damaging world shipping. However, far from encountering a whale that has wrecked world shipping. As the book progresses, the men hunt underwater, fight sharks, encounter Atlantis, and fight off giant squid.

I found a very informative clip online explaining the plot to the book (https://study.com/academy/lesson/20-000-leagues-under-the-sea-summary-quotes-characters.html) which allowed me to quickly broaden my knowledge.

Following the advice in the brief before starting my design process I wanted to research and remind myself how other designers have approached this kind of task.

David Carson

David Carsons is a very experimental designer and his style of work for this exercise has inspired me. No two designs are the same, the chaotic typography and pattern created with objects overlapping looks confusing yet holds the design together so well. I particularly like the Pepsi deigns and the mixed media collage – both very strong pieces of work which has given my ideas for this exercise!

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Sketchbook Designs

Im not too sure where I want to go with this design however I wanted to experiment with a few different techniques.

Firstly I decided to roughly sketch out the words visually, I done this as a quick thinking task as I didn’t want to think too deeply into the meanings at this point.

I then decided to write out the first chapter of 20,000 Leagues under the sea using some of the visual representations of the words. Some words are more successful than others, however I still feel that the meaning is expressed correctly. Perhaps if this was created digitally it may look neater however to me looks rather messy. Im glad I experimented with my sketchpad but I would much prefer to work digitally for this exercise. Also it wasn’t until after completing this I remembered the brief stated to use one typeface!

Design 1

Inspired by one of David Carsons artworks I went ahead and tore off different shades of blue from a magazine along with images of water and created a collage and scanned it onto my computer. I want to use this as the background and apply the typography over the top. This is experimental and may not succeed however I really wanted to test this design out!

For my first typography experiment I decided to used the typeface Lato and make use of the variety of different font styles, adjusting the tracking, size and position of words to create an interesting layout. By adjusting these features I was able to select certain words to exaggerate them and make them stand out from the rest. I was slightly disappointed that it didn’t look how I wanted with the torn background, yet still looks interesting and creative on its own.

I completed the rest of the chapter and added in a large font of the title in the background. Im happy with the end result of this design, I feel it fits the brief as stated by using the same typeface in interesting ways. By adjusting the size, tracking and style I was able to achieve an interesting layout which adds contrast, I was able to highlight some of the keywords by making them larger and bold.

Design 2

I looked further into previous designs of 20,000 leagues under the sea for further inspiration and found the majority of designs seem to feature the giant squid as mentioned in the book. Using this creature I wanted to create something again inspired by David Carson.

The image to the left is where I found inspiration for this design, I sketched out a drawing of a giant squid the simply filled the shape with the words from chapter 1.

I’m really pleased with the outcome for this design, the text clearly symbols a squid in a creative way.

Design 3

Following from the design technique above I wanted to create the shape of a wave, I overlapped the text as I wanted to experiment with this technique in a less structured and ‘messier’ way.

I think this is my favourite design out of all three, I like the roughness of the overlapping creating texture and contrast in the design. I gained inspiration for the wave design with the use of the golden ratio, along with the technique used in design 2.

Other design ideas

To ensure I was satisfied with my designs above I decided to try some fast thinking designs to create different variations using a single typeface to see if any other ideas came into comparison.

Although these are fast thinking designs and very rough, It has made me feel much more confident in the 3 designs I had previously created.

Final Designs

Reflection

I found this exercise slightly slow burning, it took me a while to move on between each of the design as I lost my ‘creativity’ however now looking back Im glad that I managed to get there in the end! I had experimented with colour however I felt the designs looked much stronger in black and white, it seemed to take away the focus from the words. Im glad to of been able to create successful experimental typographic designs, I feel that each design works well with the brief and each design is very different.

Brief: This two part exercise aims to understand the relationship between typography, the grid, and the page in more depth by analysing existing layouts and creatively developing alternative ones. Both of these activities will feed into assignment three.

Part 1 – Understanding layouts
Research into book layouts that you find interesting. These could be art or design books, or others that have more complex layouts that balance images, typography and other content across multiple columns. Trace the grid structure of your chosen double-page spread using tracing paper and a sharp pencil. Measure the margins, column width and depth, plus spaces between the columns. Transcribe the tracing onto a clean sheet of paper, drawing on the measurements. Compare your drawings to other double-page spreads within the same publication. Identify the similarities and differences – is there an underlying grid system and how does it adapt to deal with different content? Now recreate the same double-page spread using DTP software. Use your traced drawing measurements as a guide.

Part 2 – Experimental layouts

Extend the project by thinking about how you might radically change these layouts – what creative decisions around the grid would you make to improve these designs? Develop layout ideas that ignore the grid structure, challenge it, or offer radical alternatives to the existing layouts. Develop a range of ideas through thumbnail drawings and DTP layouts, in a similar way to the first part of the exercise. Use this as an opportunity to take creative risks, and find radically different ways to layout the existing content. This process might challenge any preconceived rules about how a layout should normally work. Reflect on the
process in your learning log.

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Part 1 Understanding Layouts

I started off by collecting interesting design layouts, It was fascinating to see some of the way designers have presented their layouts to create unique and eye catching designs – however it made me question of how easy they would be to follow and read.

I then looked at layouts in magazines that I had, there are a few that I disliked (see first 3 images) These came from cheap gossip magazines & a tv guide. I dislike these because of how cluttered and crammed the pages look, there is too much to concentrate on and I don’t feel that the columns flow as nicely as the more ‘plainer’ layouts.

I was disappointed I didn’t have more of a selection to choose from, which reminded me that I needed to update my collection! However as you can gather I prefer more of a sophisticated layout where the columns are evenly spaced out with the use of large imagery.

I wanted to see the difference between magazine layouts to a couple of design textbooks which I have. Of course the layouts for these are very different, these are more imagery based with the text in one single column rather than multiple. All these examples contain little text as they are more factual in relation to the images surrounding, other than the last image which is more textbook style than art book.

Grid layouts

The design I wanted to look at the grid first is from a country life magazine called ‘Suffolk Norfolk Life’ October 2019. I liked this particular layout because of its clear structure and balanced images (small image on the same page as the title to even out the larger on the opposite page).

I started off by tracing the layout of this article measuring each column, image, title and margin to reveal the grid originally used. I had a slight issue of collecting the measurements around the inner joint of the magazine however soon overcome this by using the measurements of the front cover.

Flicking through the magazine I had noticed a number of the articles in this magazine held a similar grid guide with the columns in particular, making each article different by placing different size images in different positions, but this is something I hadn’t noticed prior to making this grid! Below you can see examples of different articles using the same grid.

Digital Mockup

Using InDesign as this is a programme I’m not hugely confident in, so thought this would be the perfect opportunity to widen my knowledge around the software! Using the measurements I had made earlier along with rulers, I was able to create a digital version of the double page spread.

Although it looks very complex I found it easy to create this grid using in design, with the on screen rulers and and measurements beside I was able to do some quick maths to map out where guides needed to be placed. I uploaded a photo of my grid to help remember what went where but other than that InDesign provided a lot of help, making it easier for me!

Once the text boxes were in place and image boxes shaded in it quickly developed the structure of the double page spread and all fell into place.

Now that I had my double page spread layout complete I wanted to match the fonts used in the original. I used font squirrel and identifont to help find the typefaces.

I had no luck locating the script font used for the title in this article, both font squirrel and identifont couldn’t give me a match. I decided to search through fonts on Dafont.com. Beside you can see a selection of similar fonts, I paid close attention to the formations of the letters with the strokes and widths. The font I feel matches best is ‘Andrea Bilarosa by Bangkit Tri Setiadi’. I successfully identified the subheading typeface as ‘Claredon’ and the body text as ‘NuOrder’.

Here you can see my completed double page spread with typefaces matching the original.

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Part 2 – Experimental layouts

After successfully recreating the double page spread, the brief now states to think about how to radically change the layout and what creative decisions could improve the designs around the grid.

I started off by sketching out a few ideas oh how to change the layout in more of a creative way.

I kept in mind the golden selection whilst sketching out ideas, I wanted to be experimental with alignment and positioning. Although it was useful to sketch out some initial ideas, I do find it easier to experiment on screen to see what works best and is most pleasing to the eye. With saying that I jumped straight into InDesign to start experimenting with different layouts.

During my experimentation I aligned the columns, I felt this gave a cleaner appearance especially in the more complex layouts. I enjoyed playing around with the layouts however I did feel slightly challenged at times on how to make the double page spread more interesting. A few of the designs above didn’t radically change the layout however I did still keep in mind the type of magazine this came from and wanted the redesign to still be fitting with this genre.

The layout above is my favourite redesign, I like the use of the circular image/cut out – however for the main image on the first page, the image choice could be an issue depending on how much image is lost from this cutout?? I aligned the columns to give a cleaner appearance, especially around the small circle. I followed the golden selection with this design for the grid creating a clear spiral on both pages as seen on the left.

Reflection

I enjoyed this exercise, I glad I took the time to fully understand the golden selection and even use the guide in my redesigns. At times I felt it challenging to get motivated however looking back I feel very positive about my redesigns. The exercise had helped me realise the importance of grids and how they can improve designs.

Brief: Find as many examples of type as you can from a range of sources, including newspapers, magazines, flyers, leaflets, online and printed ephemera. Broadly classify them into serif and sans-serif groups. Explore your computer to see whether you have any of the typefaces mentioned on the previous page. Find other examples on your computer that relate to these classifications. Print these off and begin to create a collection of type samples.

Identify: Choose five different typefaces from your classification collection and now look for examples of how they can be used for reading in different contexts. For example, which typeface would be appropriate for a magazine, a science book or newspaper? Have you collected a typeface that might be suitable for all these subjects? As a way of testing out which typefaces might be appropriate for a particular job, also consider them as inappropriately as you can – find contexts in which they don’t work, look ugly or feel ‘wrong’ in some way. Do this by experimenting visually with your typeface choices.

Reflect: Consider and reflect on the nature of the type you are collecting. Examine and annotate printouts with your own impressions of the letterforms. Use descriptive words that express something of the form and character of the typeface. Follow the same process fro your ‘wrong’ typefaces as well.

Develop: Trace some interesting, unusual and everyday letterforms onto clean paper. This will help you to understand the distribution of weight of line within a particular letterform. Draw over the tracing to enhance the line and fill in the letterform with an even darker grey tone – H8 pencil is fine 0 to recreate the impression of print.

Document and present: The work you produce for this exercise will feed directly into your assignment, so collate your notes, printouts, traced letterforms and samples of type you have gathered. Consider how these could be inventively and visually integrated, and how your ideas could be creatively developed further for your assignment.

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Following the structure of the brief I went straight into collecting type examples from a range of different sources. I collected newspapers, magazines, flyers and online type and created them into collages.

By creating collages I felt this allows me to easily compare typefaces with their weights, heights and style, showing a broad range of variety.

I started off by creating collages from newspapers, magazines and online. Each source uses a variation of typefaces including serif, sans-serif and script. After sticking these down I thought it would of been better to create a mixed collage depending on typeface rather than source! So I went on to create these from new cuttings, the results are as followed.

I collected a number of typefaces and arranged them into the correct groups. I noticed that Sans-serif tend to be used more commonly as titles, especially in newspapers – a clear bold font allows things to be read from a distance and to catch the readers attention. I also found sans-serif to be the chosen typeface in most adverts within the newspaper. The body text within papers is Serif, this has been said to help the reader skim read the text and for it to be easier to be read on a small scale.

However reflecting on the choices of materials I have with me, they all seem to fall under the same genre (gossip magazines, cheap newspapers) As other papers such as The Daily Mail & The Guardian use serif fonts for their headlines, this gives these particular papers more class and seriousness when read and appear more expensive. The same goes for magazines, within my selection of mainly cheap gossip mags, I had a county magazine which included serif and script typefaces, this feels a lot more luxurious compared to the rest. As a designer it is important to remember these factors so that the work fits within the correct criteria. Typefaces are more important than we think!

Im glad I made the two collages, as whilst writing my reflection above I found myself referring back to the newspaper and magazine collages to see the varieties and quantities of typefaces used within. So both ended up become beneficial which was a relief that I hadn’t wasted my time, nor pages in my sketchbook!

I then sorted through the fonts I have on my computer, I set each typeface to 14pt so I could see how each font varied with weights and x-height etc, I then cut each column and attached it to the collages.

Because I have so many fonts on my laptop I decided to search for a font organiser online and came across FontBase. FontBase helps you quickly manage many fonts, create collections, organise your folders, and start using your fonts in an efficient way. Also both Illustrator and Photoshop have built in filters which sort each typeface into the correct folder.

Following the brief I sorted these fonts out into classifying type groups and added extra information, the results are as followed.

Each page contains the list of typefaces found on my computer along with a brief description of the category, an anatomy diagram and examples of other typefaces which I haven’t got downloaded. Once printed I was able to make brief notes along side some of the typeface.

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Identify

For this part of the brief I needed to choose 5 different typefaces from my classification collection and look for examples of how they can be used for reading in different contexts.

The 5 typefaces I have chosen are;

I have selected these particular fonts as I wanted include one from each classification category to give a variety of typefaces and for further exploration.

Angelica Pro Display – (modern)

Angelica Pro Display is a modern typeface. This Font Family is developed by Mint Type. They are freely distributed under the SIL Open Font License. Although it was hard to pin point designs used with this exact font, to get an idea of where this typeface has been used and works best, I have found a selection of modern typeface examples.

The Good

This font look expensive, sophisticated and look as if it represents products of high quality. I wanted to see how the use of typefaces can effect the appearance, and how it changes the way we the things written in this font. I have typed each of the above designs in Angelica pro display (equaling to the closet typeface used) against a mixture of alternative typefaces to see how they change the appearance.

The Bad (comparisons)

As you can see they change the look completely, this shows the importance of choosing the right typefaces. Although they have been changed to a mixture of typefaces, non of them work well or live up to the ‘high standards’ as the Angelica Pro Display font gives for said ‘brands’. They appear to look cheaper, unrecognisable and less professional. To give a higher impact I have used the alternative typefaces in replacing the original.

In both of the ‘re-designs’ this automatically takes away the seriousness and class away from both the magazine and newspaper when compared to the original. It shows how delicate the typeface is and how sophisticated it makes things seem; for example the Vogue magazine with the alternative typeface makes it seem like a cheaper gossip magazine, rather than the global successful fashion magazine that it is. The same with The Independent, it looks as if it could be a cheaper news paper in which some may say sells fake news.

& The Ugly!

Visually seeing the above typeface being used successfully against the alternative typefaces, I wanted to see where this typeface (Angelica Pro Display) would look bad and out of place. I have selected two options where I think the font would look out of place and ugly.

Angelica Pro Display would make a terrible body text font as when the letters are sized down to a smaller size, it becomes totally unreadable and a sight for sore eyes. I then replaced the font on a popular children’s book which I feel changes the cover, it makes it feel more serious and formal rather than the playful fun story that it is.

Lato – (sans-serif)

Lato is a sans serif typeface family started in the summer of 2010 by Warsaw-based designer Łukasz Dziedzic (“Lato” means “Summer” in Polish). In December 2010 the Lato family was published under the Open Font License by his foundry tyPoland, with support from Google.

I managed to find this incredibly useful website whilst in the search of Lato in use, (https://fontsinuse.com/typefaces/7521/lato) here it lists places where the fonts have been used.

The Good

As you can see above, Lato is mainly used in wed design on websites and apps. The clean, crisp lines of this sans serif fonts is the main reason why many web designers prefer this type of font for on-screen use. It was interesting to discover that Lato was used in the popular Pokemon Go App!

There are many different styles available for this typeface, which would attract more designers to opt for this typeface, some of the thicker and thinner strokes also would make good pairings.

The Bad (comparisons)

As Lato is more popular in the wed design world I wanted to compare this typeface to others which wouldn’t work successfully on screen.

As you can see from the above examples, regardless of the size of the screen Lato can be easily read, this is due to its clean clear stokes which makes the font legible and easy on the eye. This typeface also has a modern feel to it which I feel oddly makes the technology look better? I feel the modern typeface with the modern technology make a complimentary pair.

& The Ugly!

Here I wanted to see where this typeface wouldn’t look as successful, my first thought was for it to feature on printed items to see how it would look.

As you can see from replacing the main typefaces on ‘The New York Times’ newspaper it has given it a ‘homemade’ cheaper appearance. Lato is not suited for either of the above designs, The book cover of Lord of the rings looses a large impact from the medieval serif typeface used in the original.

Rockwell – (square serif)

Rockwell is a square/slab serif typeface designed by the Monotype Corporation and released in 1934. This typeface is distinguished by a serif at the apex of the uppercase A, while the lowercase a has two storeys. Because of its monoweighted stroke, Rockwell is used primarily for display or at small sizes rather than as a body text.

The Good

Rockwell appears to be a very bold and an attention grabbing font used in small doses to attract the attention of an audience.  Although it is a serif font, it is bold and heavyset, making it a poor choice for large pages of text. Above its been used in a variety of ways from shop signs to book covers to logos.

The Bad (comparisons) – This ones not so bad!

Rockwell is available in a number of different styles, all which would make ideal headings/subheadings, but as mentioned before not ideal for body text. This made me think about which typefaces would make good parings with to create a successful design.

Although Rockwell can be a ‘bulky’ font, when paired with more delicate fonts such as Bembo & Dubiel Italic it creates the perfect balance for something you may seen in the pages of a magazine or in some cases the cover of books or posters.

& The Ugly!

Here I wanted to experiment with how Rockwell can be used badly and where it shouldn’t be seen!

Because Rockwell is the opposite to a script typeface with its sharp, blunt serifs I thought this would be the perfect Not to do examples, as you can see the by replacing the script on items which are meant to be joyous and sympathetic it makes you read the words differently due to the font. This has been the first example so far of my selection which has made me feel this way.

Bebas – (Display)

Bebas is a display family suitable for headlines, captions, and packaging, designed by Ryoichi Tsunekawa. It’s based on the original Bebas typeface. The Bebas family has had many adaptations over the years, the newest style out (2019) is Bebas Neue Pro, with 40 different styles making this typeface ascetically pleasing.

The Good

Bebas seems to be widely used from book covers, to posters, to album artwork even to the famous Netflix logo. This typeface seems to be a favourite due to its clear bold modern font which seems to fit in place with most designs.

The Bad (comparisons)

I found a couple of adverts online which used the typeface Bebas so I decided to compare these along with the Netflix logo with different typefaces.

Seeing the originals next to the ‘re-designs’ you can see why it was chosen in the first place, Bebas is bold and eye catching.

& The Ugly!

Finally I wanted to test out where Bebas isn’t suited and looks out of place.

It was a little harder than with previous fonts to find a place where Bebas looks out of place, however I decided to achieve the highest impact I needed to replace Old style typefaces, this took a few goes but eventually settled on two which I felt Bebas looked out of place, it seems too modern for the style and design of the book. But as mentioned.. this was a challenge! (plus this is one of my go to fonts so I found it harder to dislike it)

Lobster – (script)

A lovely Bold Condensed Script fully loaded with hundreds of ligatures and alternates giving us the possibility to have multiple versions of each letter. The font was created in 2010 and introduced to the Google font library.

The Good

Lobster seems to be used vastly across the design world in many countries. Upon research of this typeface I discovered that it isn’t loved by all, with many asking if this is the modern day Comic sans. I feel Lobster is much more elegant font, with its neat details, strong personality, and a large number of ligatures, which have been carefully designed. – So I strongly disagree with this being compared to Comic Sans.

The Bad – (comparisons)

I wanted to compare Lobster to other typefaces to see how it works in comparison to other typefaces. What better way to start than with Comic Sans!

Lobster has a friendly and welcoming feel to itself, I especially noticed this in the ‘your friend’ image, the Serif typeface Baskerville gave this cheery image a more serious and well, boring feel to it.

& The Ugly!

Finally I wanted to see how Lobster would look in the wrong places!

The Daily Mail headline replacement of Lobster was an easy bad choice, because when ever have you seen a script typeface on the front of a national newspaper? It’s difficult to read and looks out of place with the pairings of the other typefaces used. With the Harry Potter book although its doesn’t look as terrible as the previous, it’s still not the best choice for the type of book. Although I like the typeface Lobster, if used in the wrong context it can look rather… tacky!

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Reflect

For this part of the brief I have been asked to consider and reflect on the nature of the type that I have collected and to annotate printouts with my own impressions of the letterforms.

I have made notes alongside some of the examples used above and came up with the following;

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Develop

I needed to trace some interesting, unusual and everyday letterforms to help with the understanding of the distribution of weight of line within a particular letterform.

I used a mixture of magazines, leaflets and newspapers to trace over as many different typefaces as possible. Firstly I drew the outside of the letterforms to focus on the structure of the strokes, serifs and curves of the letters, this made me pay close attention! I then coloured these in to see the full effect of the typefaces. I found the script typefaces most challenging due to the various stroke widths and smoothness of the curves.

Reflection

I found this exercise really interesting, I have always been a fan of typography but haven’t explored it quite like this. It was good to test how and experiment how the typefaces can be used in the wrong context and to be seen in an unpleasing way. It has reminded me in the importance of choosing the correct typeface and how they can be read and what characteristics they carry in themselves.

Brief: Following on from the discussion of George Orwell’s novel 1984, look at the covers for Margaret Atwood’s equally dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), in which a woman finds herself surviving inside a harsh American fundamentalist society, that sees women’s roles as subservient cooks, matrons, and mothers. Alternatively, you can pick a different book to respond to, but it needs to be one with more than one cover design, so avoid recently published books. Are there key conceptual motifs being used over and over again within different cover treatments? Can you identify more expressive versions of the covers? Check the date of each version and try to speculate about the historical, political or social context for each one. (Don’t spend long on this but it’s important to realise that creative design doesn’t happen in a vacuum.) Using one of the main motifs you have identified (such as the uniforms that feature the book), the title of the book, author’s name, and no more than three colours (including black and white), generate as many different layouts of the cover design as you can. Think about how you can dynamically layer, organise, frame, clash, or balance these elements. Work quickly and come up with lots of different visual possibilities.

Research

I firstly wanted to educate myself on the book ‘The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood’. The Handmaid’s Tale, originally published in 1985, is a dystopian novel written by Canadian author Margaret Atwood. It is set in a near-future New England, in a totalitarian state, known as Gilead, resembling a theonomy that overthrows the United States government. The Handmaid’s Tale explores themes of subjugated women in a patriarchal society and the various means by which these women resist and attempt to gain individuality and independence. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Handmaid%27s_Tale)

I found an interesting article online showing covers of The Handmaid’s Tale from the past 30 years from all over the world. http://www.rebeccaromney.com/cover-designs-handmaids-tale/

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The true first edition, 1985 (Canada) Jacket design by Tad Aronowicz. Illustration by Gail Geltner.

The cover to this edition is very odd, it shows the Commander holding a distorted figure with an infants body and adult head, it is clear that this is his handmaid. He appears to have a very protective hold over the figure keeping a close eye on her. There is an immediate sense of power in this, showing how much bigger the Commander is, to show his charge.

Dust jacket for the first American edition of The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, illustration by Fred Marcellino, 1986.

This edition is quite different from the original considering it was only released a year after the original. This design shows two women wearing the traditional Handmaid’s attire with the red cloaks and white bonnets. They are seen walking alongside a very tall wall which is said to represent the Berlin Wall during the Cold War. This cover gives more information about what the book is about with a traditional style.

Vintage Classic, 1996

This cover is more expressive than the last two, If shows a painting of a Handmaid with a blurred face. This makes the book look ‘dark’ and mysterious with the woman’s identity hidden. This could portray the way other’s of a higher position see the Handmaid’s as an unrecognisable person due to the order of hierarchy in the past and the way they are made to feel?

Published by Bloomsbury 2009

Unlike the previous designs, this decorative cover consists of objects rather than people, with a striking red background, the title and author are placed largely in the centre making this the focal point of the book. All objects used on the cover give the reader an insight to what the book is about if they aren’t familiar with the famous title.

Vintage Classics, 2010

This minimalist cover shows a repetitive lino effect print of faceless woman continuing with the colour palette of just red & white. Again this could be representing the lack of identity for the Handmaid’s within this book. The positioning and posture of the figures looks formal and strict.

Vintage Publishing, 2017 Designed by Suzanne Dean, illustrated by Noma Bar 

This hardback cover feels more modern compared to the others with the simple abstract shapes of the red dress & white bonnet and the title and author’s name being embossed on the cover. I like the simplicity of this cover and with the black background creating a deep contrast between the red and white.

Vintage Classic 2017

This edition focuses on the hit Tv series, making the book recognisable to those who have seen the programme. This photographic cover still keeps to the red & white colour palette, with the typography on the cover contrasting against the background revealing the image in white. From looking at the cover it doesn’t give much away unless you are familiar with the actress Elisabeth Moss who plays the main character in the tv series.

Vintage Publishing, 2019  Renee Nault (illustrator)

This design caught my eye due to its typographic cover, the simple monospaced sans-serif typeface creates a clean and sophisticated cover. The small image of the Handmaid in red creates the perfect eye catching thumbnail image. Although the cover doesn’t give away a lot of information, I feel that it does show it’s a mature book.

Key Conceptual Motifs

• Colour palettes of red, white and black
• Imagery of white bonnets and red dresses (Handmaid’s clothing)
• Female figures
• Faceless – representing lack of identity

The uniform seems to be one of the more iconic symbols which I think is important to include on my designs. Below I have created a selection of 18 covers.

I started of by creating a more detailed silhouette however I didn’t feel it looked right, it felt too rigid and digital? I then went on to create a more basic silhouette with more of a side profile to see the bonnet clearer. On some designs I have given the red cloak a rigid edge to add depth and effect to the designs. I played around with text positioning and typefaces, I feel that the Serif typeface suits the design and book more as it feels more formal. Following traditions from previous existing designs I kept my image faceless as I feel this expresses the lack of identity for the woman in the story.

Reflection

I enjoyed getting back into a design exercise again after what seems to be a lot of research (however still being informative!) This was a useful quick thinking process to get myself back in the game and thinking about imagery and text positioning.

Brief: This exercise hopes to broaden your understanding of other book designers’ work by looking at their cover designs. Start to identify the kinds of book covers you are drawn to, and critically assess why you think these designs are successful.

1. Undertake a combination of library and internet research into the following designers, identifying a number of book cover designs for each. Reflect on their conceptual and/or expressive approaches to design. Write a very brief description of your selected cover designs and a brief overview of the designer – try to focus on keywords rather than long descriptions. Do this in note form, using the designer and the chosen example design to visually inform how the information appears in your learning log.

• Phil Baines
• Coralie Bickford-Smith
• Derek Birdsall
• Kelly Blair
• Irma Boom
• Suzanne Dean
• Julia Hastings
• Linda Huang
• Jost Huchuli
• Ellen Lupton
• Peter Mendelsund
• Paul Rand
• Paula scher
• Jan Tschichold
• Wolfgang Weingart

2. Compare and contrast some of the cover designs. For example, how does the cover of Peter Mendelsund’s Kafka series compare with Coralie Bickford-Smith’s gothic horror series for Penguin? Are these expressive or conceptual in nature? Are they both conforming to genre expectations, or are they challenging them in some way? Do Jan Tschichold and Ellen Lupton’s cover designs have anything in common? Make drawings, sketch or tracing of the covers you’re comparing to help give you a better understanding of the imagery, typography and arrangement within the design. Use your learning log to reflect on your comparisons, identifying which covers you think are the strongest and why.

3. Now, select three or more designers from the list that you are particularly drawn to, either because you like their work or because you don’t understand their approach, and research their design careers in more depth. Think about how they’ve responded to very difficult design challenges, whether they have an underlying conceptual and/or expressive approach, and how their work has evolved over time. Continue to use your learning log to record their work visually, explore these covers through drawing, and your responses in note format. See this as a quick fire activity rather than a long essay.

4. Finally, identify at least three different book designers you find visually engaging. To do this you might want to visit a library, bookshop or browse online. Identify who designed these covers and find out more about them. Try to work out why you are drawn to them. Is it to do with genre or their approach to design? What is is about the design that captures you? What sort of imagery, if any, is used on the cover? How does the text relate to the image? What atmosphere or style does the cover evoke? Summarise your thinking in your learning log – focusing on the kinds of book covers you are drawn to and why – and continue to document what these covers look like.

Part 1 : Research

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Phil Baines

Phil Baines is an accomplished designer and senior lecturer in typography at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design and co-curator of the Central Lettering Record.

Images: Google Images

• Makes title part of the design
• Clear indication of what the book is about from the cover
• Busy designs
• Makes use of whole page
• Sophisticated typefaces used in the typography covers
• Limited colour pallet on typography covers (two colours used)

I was drawn by the first three covers as I was drawn by the strong colour palettes, in particular I liked the ‘Puffin by design’ cover, I found this interesting as the title has been created from gaps within the book collage. The last three I design’s I chose because there is a clear style present, the fonts used are elegant and the covers looks very mature and expensive.

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Coralie Bickford-Smith

Coralie Bickford-Smith is one of the most renowned designers in the publishing industry, especially recognised and celebrated for her illustrated covers of Penguin’s clothbound classics.

Images: Google Images

• Clear indication of a series
• Busy designs
• Limited colour pallets
• Elegant and sophisticated designs
• Look expensive
• Very decorative

I was drawn to the top three as I found this series interesting with the decorative backgrounds and liked the way the presented as a series. The bottom three caught my attention due to the foil used in the designs which give a glisten when the light catches them. These look very sophisticated and perfect ‘coffee table’ books. I found it hard to narrow down my cover selection for Coralie’s designs as they where all very interesting and eye catching!

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Derek Birdsall

Derek Birdsall is an internationally renowned British graphic designer.

Images: Google Images

• Minimalist designs
• Typography – clear large bold text
• Very limited colour palette
• Vintage feel (faded yellow backgrounds)

Derek Birdsall seems to have a clear style within his designs, they are very minimalistic with the use of one colour. The fonts used across the selection of designs above look very simular by being a bold sans-serif typeface. In the ‘Poverty’ and ‘Birthday’ designs Birdsall has incorporated a penny for the ‘o’ and candle for the ‘i’ which looks playful and imaginative.

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Kelly Blair

Kelly Blair is the art director of Pantheon books, an associate art director at Knopf and freelance illustrator.

Images: http://kellyblair.com

• Clean designs
• Good colour palettes – bright and vivid
• Creative designs
• Doesn’t have a ‘set’ style

I like Blair’s designs, in particular I think the cover for ‘When the doves disappear’ is very strong, interesting and creative. This gives us a slight indication of what the book is about, perhaps it be about a man leaving a woman? Possibly set 60+ years ago according to the photograph used? Its very intriguing.

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Irma Boom

Irma Boom, is a Dutch graphic designer who specialises in book making. Boom has been described as ‘The Queen of Books’, having created over 300 books and is well reputed for her artistic autonomy within her field.

Images: Google images

• Very creative
• Experimental/unusal
• Bold
• Not your usual book
• Very colourful – bright & eye catching

Irma’s work is very interesting and unusual, particularly ‘Irma Boom Biography in books’ This appears to be a book within a book which is in-fact completely functional. These designs are completely unique to Irma Boom.

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Suzanne Dean

Suzanne Dean is a creative director at Penguin Random House Group.

https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/2017/making-a-cover-suzanne-dean-on-bluets/

• Use of mixed media
• Bold
• No ‘set’ design style
• Use of both small and large colour palettes
• Full page designs
• Contrast of colours

It was interesting to see the design process of ‘Bluets’ to see all the different elements come together to form the end design. I was also drawn to ‘C’ and ‘The book of numbers’ both containing completely different design techniques.

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Julia Hastings

Julia Hasting is a German graphic designer. She is the Creative Director of Phaidon Press, head of the design department.

Images: https://www.juliahasting.com/

• Experimental designs – Book binding experiments in the first book
• Mixed media
• Challenges the form of book – Warhol book made to look like a box
• Coffee table books – Great for display
• High quality

Julia Hastings’ designs are creative and experimental, it is clear to see that she likes to play with the proportion of the book. Her books look like they would make the perfect Coffee table books down to their interesting designs, making them great for display.

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Linda Huang

Linda Huang is a graphic designer based in New York. She is currently an associate art director at Vintage & Anchor Books, an imprint at Penguin Random House.

Images: http://www.linda-huang.com/

• Wide range of styles
• Use of mixed media in some designs
• Simple colour palettes
• Clean designs
• Handwritten fonts in some designs
• Experimental in the ‘Dept of speculation’ cover with the cut out effect

I like Linda Huang’s style in her work, I find her work quite inspirational as I see myself with similar design tastes. The ‘War & turpentine’ cover is interesting with the use of mixed media, I also like the ‘Brilliant…’ cover, this is very playful with the candles being replaced by cigarettes.

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Jost Huchuli

Jost Hochuli is a world-renowned book designer living in St. Gallen, Switzerland. He is the author of numerous books on graphic design and typography.

Images: Google Images

• Minimalist
• Simple colour palette
• Experimental text positioning
• Typographic covers

Very simple minimalist designs with limited colour palettes, ‘Mein St.Gallen’ stood out for me, I liked the torn page effect, the colours used creates a very bold eye catching cover. The series above is very recognisable down to the identical cover layouts.

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Ellen Lupton

Ellen Lupton is a graphic designer, curator, writer, critic, and educator. Known for her love of typography, Lupton is the curator of contemporary design at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City.

Images: http://elupton.com/

• Clear indication that these are information/educational books
• Covers relate to contents inside
• Typography based covers
• Simple colour palettes

It was interesting to see the book ‘Thinking with type’ come up in my search as I purchased this book during Core Concepts!

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Peter Mendelsund

Peter Mendelsund is the associate art director of Alfred A. Knopf Books.

Images: https://www.petermendelsund.com/covers

• Playful designs
• Mixed media – different range of materials
• Modern designs
• Variety of styles
• Complementary colour palettes

Interesting intriguing designs, the covers aren’t clear about what the books are about, yet still draw you in.

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Paul Rand

Paul Rand was an American art director and graphic designer, best known for his corporate logo designs, including the logos for IBM, UPS, Enron, Morningstar, Inc., Westinghouse, ABC, and NeXT. He was one of the first American commercial artists to embrace and practice the Swiss Style of graphic design.

Images: Google Images

• Clear style present – All designs contain similarities
• Limited colour palette
• Cut and paste effect

Each design shows a silhouette within the design, Rand has clearly adapted his style to relate to the contents of each book.

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Paula scher

Paula Scher is an American graphic designer, painter and art educator in design. She has create many logos and designs for many large brands. She also served as the first female principal at Pentagram, which she joined in 1991.

Images: Google Images

• Typography
• Playful and experimental in text positioning
• Bold
• Handwritten words/scribbles
• Limited colour palette on some designs

Paula’s book cover work main focus’s on typography, some being of large, clean and bold lettering, while others consist of handwritten words tightly packed onto a page.

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Jan Tschichold

Jan Tschichold was a calligrapher, typographer and book designer. He played a significant role in the development of graphic design in the 20th century – first, by developing and promoting principles of typographic modernism, and subsequently idealising conservative typographic structures.

Images: Google Images

• Creator of iconic Penguin Book design – Classic style
• Typographic style
• Clear hierarchy
• Limited colour palette

Looking at the Penguin Books design, the cover doesn’t give away much of what the contents of the book is, instead it clearly shows it is part of the Penguin brand, which is immediately recognised still to this day.

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Wolfgang Weingart

Wolfgang Weingart is an internationally known graphic designer and typographer. His work is categorised as Swiss typography and he is credited as “the father” of New Wave or Swiss Punk typography.

Images: Google Images

• Bold
• Experimental
• Layering – mixed media
• Modernist
• Typography based – all designs Sans-serif typefaces

I found Weingart harder to research for book designs, although the covers I did find (above) are bold and have similar design traits. It seems that the middle two covers are more experimental with the the contents.

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Part 2 : Comparisons

I wanted to start with two designers who I found their works to be similar yet totally unique, these designers are Irma Book & Julia Hastings.

Above I have made notes and sketches on the two book cover designs I have chosen for each designer.

For Irma Boom I have chosen firstly to look at ‘Viktor & Rolf Cover Cover’. This high quality fashion exhibition book is uniquely folded with a stitched binding technique which can be seen from the back rather than on the spine.

For Julia Hasting I have chosen to look at ‘Sample’. This also is a high quality fashion exhibition book, The cover and pages of this book are sculpted out of pleated paper with each signature cut differently in different lengths and angles, revealing a step effect. The cover of this book is held together by an elastic strap with stitched details attached.

Both these designs have similarities to them and it was interesting to compare two unique books from the same genre and also the same publishing house ‘Phaidon’, which I didn’t realise at the time of selection! From first glance you can see that both are high quality and make the perfect ‘coffee table books’ down to their interesting qualities, however by looking at both books, it isn’t clear what the contents is about, however when looking into the finer detail of Julia Hasting’s design it becomes clearer with the elastic detail and the tab with the books title on, that it resembles a clothing tab. Both designs I feel are expressive, experimental and both very successful.

Although I am mainly focusing on Irma Boom’s ‘Viktor & Rolf Cover Cover’ and Julia Hasting’s ‘Sample’ I also found 2 more designs which I felt had slight similarities from both designers; these are ‘James Jennifer Georgina (the yellow book)’ by Irma Boom and ‘The Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonne Vols 1-4 by Julia Hasting. It was interesting to see that both designers used slipcases which aren’t very common.

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I then wanted to look at the two designers as suggested in the brief. Peter Mendelsund’s series ‘Kafka’ and Coralie Bickford-Smiths gothic horror series for Penguin.

Peter Mendelsund’s series ‘Kafka’ shows a clear indication that all books are part of the series as they all feature the same symbolic imagery of the eye in each design. His designs are simple, minimalist and clear however they don’t express much of what the book is about. Peter has selected a script typeface which creates a contrast against the sharpness of his designs.

Coralie Bickford-Smith’s Gothic horror series for Penguin all appear to be lino print with the same colour palette used on all designs. There are similarities between each design which helps link these books to appear as part of a series. The majority of Coralie’s designs are repetitive prints, they are disjointed and have a blurred glitch effect.

From first appearance you can see that Bickford-Smith’s designs belong from the gothic genre due to the colour palette and choice of imagery used. The colour palette and typeface used on each design helps to link these designs as part of a series.

Unlike Mendelsund’s designs, Coralie’s covers express the contents of the book slightly on the cover, giving the audience a slight indication to what the book is about. However both designers have similarities within their work, they are both conceptual with repetitive imagery within their designs.

I believe Coralie’s gothic Penguin series is much stronger and expressive, these designs give a clearer indication as to what the book is about, including which genre they belong to. The designs are enticing and interesting, were as Peter’s designs look more like pieces of artwork rather than book designs due to the lack of expression/’story’ behind the designs.

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Part 3 : Who I’m Drawn To

Linda Huang

Linda is a graphic designer based in New York. Her work has been recognised by The Type Directors Club, Print Magazine, The New York Times, and 50 Books Covers, among others. She also works on freelance projects, which includes editorial Illustrations for the New York Times.

Images Sourced: http://www.linda-huang.com/

During the research stage I felt drawn to Linda Huang’s work. I feel like her overall style is modern with the majority of her designs relating to the context of the book, it’s clear that Huang takes time to think about the right approach for each title and the results are consistently interesting. She is experimental and adaptive making her a versatile designer.

Whilst researching Linda Huang I came across an article she wrote which I found really interesting, a particular section I found very helpful and relatable for my current position in this unit. It was as follows;

Before I begin work, I read as much as I can of and about the book and author—reviews, marketing strategies, and similar titles, jotting down anything I find metaphorically significant or visually interesting. If necessary, I collect art research for inspiration, especially for era-specific books. It helps to have a mood board containing the visual language I am trying to capture. I then ask myself: What is the overall tone or mood of the writing? Does it call for a photograph, an illustration, or a collage? Is the author important enough to warrant an all-type cover?

https://lithub.com/secrets-of-the-book-designer-paperbacks/

The Book of Heaven by Patricia Storace – 2013 – Pantheon Books. I decided to look at one of Linda Huang’s early designs. This particular design is a very interesting and unique, giving the appearance of a sharp geometrical image unlike any other designs on the shelf. The contrast between the shapes of the jet black twinkly night sky against the peaceful blue skies helps not only the type stand out, but creates dimension within the shape. This creates an expressive and experimental design. Putting the quote above to test, I wanted to research the book to see how Huang’s design relates to the contents. The book is about four women who invite us to enter into a new and powerful imagination of the divine, ‘what if a woman’s point of view were also God’s?’ I can understand why Huang decided to create something so strong, unique and imaginative to tie in with the contents of the book.

Prince of Monkeys by Nnamoi Ehirim – 2019 – Counterpoint Press. The book is written by a young Nigerian writer, tackling politics, class, spirituality, and power as a group of friends come of age in Lagos, Nigeria. Linda Huang’s design helps express the rawness of the book with the handwritten typeface, looking like it could feature as part of a graffiti statement on the side of a building, especially with the choice of background used in this design.

The Natural Order of Things by Kevin P. Keating – 2014 – Vintage Books. Unlike the previous two covers, this design’s main feature is of a distorted painting looking as if it has been folded. To me this gives a 3D illusion of a long narrow cube, which makes it quite intriguing. From first glance the book looks like contains mature content set in the past due to the imagery used. The book is a dark, powerful novel about a tragic city and its inhabitants over the course of one Halloween weekend. Unlike the previous designs I find the cover more challenging to relate to the contents of the book, however the publisher Vintage Books may have a slight reason behind this as the cover does have similarities to existing designs from other artists/authors.

The Dragonfly Sea by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor – 2019 – Knopf. The cover to this book is very relatable to the title. The paint splatters represent the dragonflies skimming in front of us and the dark blue/teal background represents the sea. The book is a vibrant, stunning coming-of-age novel about a young woman struggling to find her place in a vast world – a poignant exploration of fate, mortality, love, and loss. Huang has taken a conceptual approach to this design, she has been experimental by using paint rather than digital design, it creates a very simple yet effective design.

Their work: Overall I feel that Linda Huang’s work is of a wide variety. No two of her designs are the same and I believe this is down to her design process of thoroughly researching the books to make sure she captures relatable and understandable content within the cover, she is experimental and adaptive making her a versatile designer. The majority of Huang’s designs are of bold typography.

How has the work evolved? It is hard to say how Linda Huang’s work has evolved due to the point mentioned above. However it is noticeable that in the recent years Huang has become more experimental with the use of mixed media in her work which creates interesting deigns.

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Irma Boom

Irma Boom, is a Dutch graphic designer who specialises in book making. Boom has been described as ‘The Queen of Books’, having created over 300 books and is well reputed for her artistic autonomy within her field.

I found Irma Boom’s work interesting during the research stage but it wasn’t until the comparison stage I really took a liking to her work, with a few particular pieces which caught my eye which I will mention below. Irma’s approach to book design is like no other, she is incredibly experimental and likes to challenge the form of the book, making her work expressive, unique and inspirational.

It is clear that Irma creates books with their own unique traits, she is often asked to recreate the same designs for new clients to which she has responded “Of course I can, but you cannot repeat something unique,” she said. “I want to create new things.”

Her creation begins with a concept. (“It always has to have a concept,” as Boom likes to say.) She then carries out her vision not with software, but with models – handmade, drastically scaled down versions of her projects that she uses to test ideas and materials. The final result often looks as if it could never have been designed on a computer. 

Chanel Limited Edition by Irma Boom – 2013. Totally unique, this book consists of white pages embossed to reveal patterns and images, this book contains absolutely NO ink! The book is the story of Chanel No.5 which, as the first synthetic fragrance in a radically simple bottle, was considered avant-garde in its time. Because perfume is impossible to see once applied, Irma Boom said, “I wanted to make a book with content not printed.” The text and images are embossed on soft paper, it is surprisingly readable. However It only works in its physical form, as a PDF would be include white pages.

Dieter Roth’s “Collected Works, Vol. 7.” 1974

The Swiss artist Dieter Roth (1930-1998) is allegedly one of Irma Boom’s inspirations. This book had a print run, but each copy was made with pages taken from comic books, making every book different. What makes this book interesting is the cut outs on each page, creating an interesting concept to the book. The wrap around book jacket consists of a neon abstract design, where as the book cover itself includes a simple sketched design. Irma has been experimental with this book by creating an unusual book jacket and by creating holes within the pages of the book. The contrast between the contents, cover and book jacket create a balanced unusual but unique finished design.

Irma Boom: The Architecture of the Book – 2013. This miniature book contains a complete overview of Irma Boom’s work in reverse chronological order from 2013-1986. The cardboard surround acts as a holder for the tiny red book with the dimensions of 5x4cm! Although this is not completely unusual for Irma, she often creates miniature models of books to present to clients to test ideas. Irma has said that ‘Creating models helps to oversee in a less confronting way how image and text is disrupted’. Upon first glance, it isn’t clear what the book actually contains. It wasn’t until researching I discovered that it is in fact a catalogue of her work. Irma has been creative in the way she created a surround/holder for the book, this makes it less likely to loose the book.

Their work: Scale is something that Irma is fond of, wether the books be miniature or large, or contain over 2000 pages which weighs over 8lbs. Irma creates uniquely wonderful books which are considered as pieces of art, she is highly expressive and pushes the boundaries of what a book can be.

How has the work evolved? Its hard to compare Irma’s work as each is so different. It is clear that Irma is always testing out and creating new ideas for new books, this makes her such an exciting artist as we never know what to expect next.

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Derek Birdsall

British graphic designer born in 1934. Educated at Wakefield College of Art and the Central School of Arts and Crafts. Amongst much other work he is known for designing Penguin book covers and Pirelli calendars.

The final designer I wanted to look into was one that I didn’t quite understand the work of, in the hope that research may enlighten me into Derek Birdsall’s design choices.

Upon research I discovered that Birdsall has remained faithful to no more than a dozen typefaces: Bell, Bodoni and Eric Gill’s Sans, Joanna and Modern among them. He has experimented with more contemporary faces, he says, but finds them usually flawed, so sticks with the old workhorses, all of which have strong personalities. He felt so strongly about the typeface that he has said he would not have done the job if the client hadn’t accepted it.

Notes on Book Design by Derek Birdsall – 2004. I felt like I wanted to start off with one of Dereks own books, to see if I can gain better understanding behind his design choices. ‘Notes on book design’ is an educational book focusing on a lifetime’s experience in designing books, and discusses nearly fifty books that he has designed. The cover for this design is clear and minimal, the choice of red font creates the perfect eye catching title, however I am slightly confused as to what the image is meant to represent? Although I suppose not all designs add images in relation to the contents. I don’t find Birdsall’s work expressive as the cover doesn’t give much away about what the genre or what the book is about.

Males and Females by Corinne Hutt – 1973 – Penguin Books. This books cover is very minimal, typography is the main feature. Derek Birdsall has been playful and creative in this design by highlighting the male and female chromosomes in ‘Sexy & Sexx’. I feel that this makes the design slightly expressive as it isn’t obvious until you start to think about what it means any why they’re highlighted.

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee – 1963 – Penguin Books. Not quite the typical Classic Penguin cover, however this still creates an interesting and different design, however I do feel it looks like somebody has just simply written notes over the cover. I found an article stating that at the age of 12 one of Derek’s teachers had recommended he join Art School, on the basis of his exceptional handwriting. Im personally not a fan of this cover, I feel it looks messy and unprofessional, quite frankly I’m surprised the client even agreed to it! BUT.. it still creates a unique and recognisable cover which expresses facts on why the book is good, which in turn will make people want to read it.

American Capitalism by JK Galbraith – 1963 – Pelican. American Capitalism contains a critique of the view that markets, left to their own devices, will provide socially optimal solutions. The cover to this book is very clear about what the contents are about, Birdsall has created the cover in an expressive way which makes it easy for the reader to know what to expect.

Their work: It is clear that Derek Birdsall design style is minimalistic, bold and mainly typography based. His covers are hard to read in the respect that they are clear as to what it’s about. However there are strong typographic designs designed by Birdsall.

How has the work evolved? It’s clear to see that over the course of Birdsall’s career he has taken more of a design style towards typography covers. He is not a showy designer interested in trends. His passion lies in the details.

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Part 4: Book Designers of my choice

Unfortunately I am unable to visit bookstores or libraries at the moment due to the pandemic, which I am disappointed about as I would of liked to visually explore the shelves, however I will just have to browse online instead.

Alison Forner

Alison Forner is an American Graphic Designer. Her work has been recognised by the American Institute of Graphic Arts in their 50 Books/50 Covers Show, the New York Book Show, and in PRINT’s Regional Design Annual. She was selected for inclusion in The Best of Cover Design published by Rockport in 2011. Her work was also featured in Classic Penguin: Cover to Cover published by Penguin Random House in 2016. 

The first book I came across was ‘My Ex-Life by Stephen McCauley (2018)’. I was drawn to this book by its well put together cover, I liked the effect of the text precisely placed on the torn pieces of paper. The brightness of colour used was one of the main things that caught my eye against other book designs. I decided to look further into Alison Forner to see if this was a ‘one off favourite’ but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the rest of her work.

I feel that Alison Forner’s work is;

• Expressive
• Creative
• Experimental
• Clean & Clear
• Uses complimentary colour palettes

I have found a couple of articles Alison has written about designing covers and how she gets to the end result, I found these very interesting as she openly shows her design process and experiments, for a new designer this gives me hope and shows me to keep experimenting as the first design isn’t necessarily the best!

https://lithub.com/when-a-writer-wants-you-and-only-you-to-design-their-cover/

http://www.faceoutbooks.com/filter/Alison-Forner/The-Interrogative-Mood

THE UNCHANGEABLE SPOTS OF LEOPARDS

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Rodrigo Corral

Rodrigo Corral is an American graphic artist known for his book cover designs. Corral has designed over 500 book covers.

Rodrigo Corral has created some of the most iconic visuals in publishing. Open to all projects big and small, he is a celebrated designer, partnering with talent such as Junot Diaz, Jay-Z, Deepak and Sanjiv Chopra, Chuck Palahniuk, Tory Burch, Gianna Angelopoulos, Gary Shteyngart, Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen, and organizations such as the Criterion Collection, New York Magazine and The New York Times. In addition to running the Rodrigo Corral studio, he is also the Creative Director for Farrar, Straus & Giroux and Creative Director at Large for New Directions. While Rodrigo’s style is diverse, each project carries enough permanence to cut through today’s noise and rise above the trends. (http://rodrigocorral.com/about)

I came across Rodrigo Corral’s website and one of the first covers I felt a connection to was ‘A Million Little Pieces by James Frey’. I really liked the photograph used with the rainbow sprinkle balls representing the ‘million little pieces’, the cover is simple yet self explanatory and has strong relation to the title, I like the positioning of the image so that the full image of the arm wraps around the book covering all area’s.

Images Sourced: http://rodrigocorral.com/

I feel that Rodrigo Corral’s work is;

• Modern
• Conceptual
• Bright colour palettes
• Variety of styles

Overall I find Corral’s work very interesting, each design is different from the last. Experimenting with materials and contrasting colours and shapes has shown how Rodrigo’s designs stand out from the daily noise.

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Eiko Ojala

Eiko Ojala is a renowned illustrator and graphic designer based in Estonia. He works mostly digitally and draws everything by hand. Within his work process Eiko likes to study the forms of shapes and to work closely with light and shadow.

I came across this particular cover which drew me in, I liked the depth and illusion of this illustration. I found the layering effect very effective and unique, I also felt the text positioning was very creative.

Images Sourced: https://www.behance.net/eiko

I feel that Ekio Ojala’s work is:

• Experimental
• Creative
• Bold/clean
• Bright colour palettes
• Samt style present

Ekio creates cut paper illustrations that present shadow and depth through creative layering of colourful pieces of paper. This makes his designs unique and recognisable, although he has only designed a short few book covers, his work is still inspiring and refreshing.

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Reflection

On reflection of this exercise It is clear to see that from all the designers covers I am most attracted to the bright, colourful and creative designs, which is something that has caught my eye since taking an interest in art at high school. When it comes to book design I enjoy seeing a relation between the cover and either the title or the contents of the book as I feel it is important to entice the reader in with snippets of whats to come, I have also learnt during this exercise that it has been made clear that the majority of the designers listed above make this fact very clear and state that the research is a very important stage in the first steps to designing covers.

I felt this exercise interesting, I enjoyed researching book designers to see their design approaches and the designs which they produce, I found it very inspirational and educational, especially reading interviews of some of the most successful book designers and learning about their design process and gathering tips for my own knowledge.

The kind of stock you choose will be informed by the nature of the job you’re doing. If you were working commercially, the checking paper quality – the weight and finish of the paper – is something you would do with your client, as paper choices can add both quality and cost to a design hob. The advent of high quality digital printed in almost every high street has made high finished standards much more achievable and affordable, although you might be amazed at what can be achieved with a photocopier and coloured 80gsm paper.

Knowing what papers are available and their qualities is an important part of what you might offer as a commercial book designer. One way to do this is by requesting sample books from commercial paper merchants, or talking to your local printers, who can give you a swatch of the papers they recommend for you to share with your client and keep for future reference.

Brief: Look at as many different kinds of books as you can and critically start to gauge the weight, grain and finish of the papers. Do all books keep the same paper choices throughout? What’s the relationship between the covers and the paper inside? Which books do you like the feel of, and why?

Annalise the binding style of the books you’ve collected. How does the book block adhere to the cover? How does it adhere to the spine? Is it stitched or glued? You’ll notice that in case-bound or hardback books, the sections, or signatures, are sewn together and glued to the spine. Paperback books, on the other hand, are more likely to be ‘perfect-bound’, where the pages are glued together and then directly onto the covering.

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Below is a list of the books that I had listed in the previous exercise and looked closer at the binding style and pages used within the book.

Book 1 – The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

Binding

• Glued
• No end paper
• Clear signatures

Paper

• Thick card pages
• Smooth protective coating on pages
• Curved edges

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Book 2 – Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell

Binding

• Glued
• No end paper
• Clear signatures

Paper

• Thick card
• Curved edges
• Protective coating

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Book 3 – The Queen makes a scene by Mairi Mackinnon

Binding

• Glued
• 2 clear signatures
• Paper covered hardback
• Coloured end papers

Paper

• Silk coated paper
• Fairly thin pages (considering its a children’s book)

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Book 4 – Matilda by Roald Dahl

Binding

• Book block glued to spine
• Paperback

Paper

• Cover is matte with embossed title and holographic details within the illustration
• Uncoated paper
• Edge of paper dyed yellow

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Book 5 – Make your own luck by Kate Moross

Binding

• Glued to the spine
• 14 signatures

Paper

• Cover is matte coated thin card
• Smooth premium paper inside

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Book 6 – The Bazaar of bad dreams by Stephen King

Binding

• Book block glued
• Black headband
• Hardback cloth covered board
• Black embossed title on spine

Paper

• Paper dust jacket
• Black end paper
• Slight curvature cut to the book block
• Uncoated paper inside

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Book 7 – Steve Coogan – Easily Distracted

Binding

• Book block glued to the spine
• Paperback cover

Paper

• Matte coated cover
• Uncoated paper
• 21 pages are white gloss paper containing photographs

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Reflection

It was interesting to look up close and personal to the books to see how they had been manufactured and what the qualities are. It is clear to see that some books are made better than others. I focused on paper choices in the research point following this exercise.