Final Product
Number One: understanding the problem
I started by researching book covers focusing on two main things.
- What's the purpose of book covers?
- What makes a good/bad cover?
One example of good book covers are the Olly Moss covers for the Harry Potter books
The Simplistic yet whimsical design of the book capture your interest and fits the feeling of reading a harry potter book
Number Two: research and investigate
Cuckoo Song:
Author: Frances Hardinge
Genres: Fiction, Fantasy Fiction, Paranormal fiction
Nominations: Carnegie Medal
Some of the most important plot points in the book are:
- Triss waking up after falling into the millpond with no memories
- Triss develops an unusual appetite eating rotten apple, paper, her sisters lunch, ect.
- Triss is visited by a bird and traps it in her sewing box to get answers.
- Triss finds out she's not really Triss.
- Triss and Pen (her sister) visit Violet.
- Triss finds out she's a doll made of leaves and her 'parents' try to burn her alive.
Number Three: generate possible solutions
I started by sketching up some concepts in my notebook
Number Four: select and develop the best ideas
I chose the elements i liked and made a rough sketch of what i wanted the final project to look like.
Number Five: model and prototype (Create)
I decided to make my design in photoshop
The following documents my process in designing this book cover-
I started by choosing some good images to trace and use as reference.
I masked off the layer and colored in the bird to look how I liked (I did the same with the thorn branch).
I placed the bird on the branch having it be the main focus of the front cover.
I made a few copies of the thorn branch to make one continuing piece.
I made a dull purple gradient for the back ground making it radial to look like a light source.
Using this light source I shaded the branch and bird so they wouldn't look so flat.
I added in the logos, barcode, publisher, etc.
I put the name of the book and author onto the front and spine of the book.
I decided the back looked to bare and boring so I add some feathers, coloring them to look like they where from the bird.
I felt the back still look to bare so I put in a small summery to make it feel more complete.
I completed the design by adding a leathery texture onto the cover.
Number Six: test and evaluate
How could you take it further with more time?
If given more times I felt I could have maybe done more with texure
Ask others for their opinions and document their and your suggestions.
The most feed back I could really get from the people around me was very general 'good'
Personally I felt like the texture was laking, I played around a bit with come fabric and canvas textures but, the leather ended up looking the best.
Number Seven: produce
What you liked about your solution?
I like how it all flows together well and the smaller details the lighting and shading
What you would do different in the process?
I might have wanted to make more of a clear scene of some sorts.
Identify you greatest difficulties?
I struggled a lot with the back cover, I knew it was missing something but, I wasn't quite sure what it was.
What did you learn from this project?
I learned how to use images to represent a deeper meaning.
