Saturday, 14 April 2012

WHAT IS A LINE - book covers

Now the collage was complete, they needed to be fit to a book cover template. The penguin website provided a template that was to be used alongside the Brothers Grimm competition, so this was handy, and it also gave it a bit more purpose and structure. 

Originally, different typefaces were going to be placed with different titles. A good place to start was with Georgia, which fit aptly with to the fairy tale scene. To suit the hand rendered style already used, I wanted to experiment a bit more with doing type by hand, which I previously had a go at during the Stamp It brief. The cover didn’t need to be overloaded, however, so this would just be kept to the front and the spine of the book. 

The title was typed out in Georgia in 72pt so that it was large enough to display it’s different features, making it easier to draw out. This could then be scanned in, live traced and converted to live paint.





The next cover was Cinderella. A script style typeface seemed to be the most fitting, starting with a large and flowing capital ‘C’. On Illustrator, the text tool was used to see what could work. A number of typefaces were looked at, but Wisdom Script was the most fitting. I repeated the process, but it just didn’t seem to be working. Whatever size it was, it just didn’t look right in comparison to the other. I played around with it for ages, trying to change the size of certain letters, putting it on slants and so on but it couldn’t be forced into looking ok. I decided to focus on using Georgia throughout, which would give it more continuity - make it more of a series or a set. Size and colour could still be played with, therefore giving each cover it’s own original aesthetics. 





Colour used was picked out from the images, so that they complimented each other, and the reverse of the book simply featured a barcode and a small plot summary.



Book 1







Book 2






Book 3







(above blurb to be changed)


The more I looked at the book covers the more I felt like there was something completely wrong with them. They just weren’t flowing right. Deep down, I knew that it was the backgrounds that the collage had been placed on, so I decided to experiment and have a play around. 
As you can see on the 'Jorinda and Joringel' book cover, a different background has been used. This was a paler version of the other, and off screen both stocks were a completely different colour as to what has came up on screen. With the paler stock, the light from the scanner has really picked up on the lumps and bumps. This is the problem that was also faced with white paper, which is why a stark white background couldn't be achieved this way. 
It looks too busy with the stock on screen, therefore I feel that the collage should be cut away and left on a white background, which will allow me to print on a stock similar to what was used in the first place. This way I won't be printing coloured stock onto stock or printing a "stock effect" onto white. 

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