As in the brief Penguin has stated that they want the book to stray away from the common other covers for the book or common theme in the book, research into the existing cover and how they are inspired by the book will be conducted. The aim of this is to see the issues Penguin do not want included or copied, these will allow the themes to be eliminated or analysed for the cover. The book needs to also appeal to a younger audience that the current book achieve, the book cover need to be timeless as well.
Existing covers via Penguin
These are published designs of the cover, sited from the brief page on the Penguin competition page, these are the example given to the designers to be inspired by as they are the most popular designs. Looking at these will allow me to see what penguin wants the designers to use/inspire the, but also shows what not to do for this cover as the brief states the design need to be different therefore these are the style of covers the company want not to be produced.
ideas
-produce like these (obvious)
-produce totally different to these (ambiguous)
represents scout as the child playing on the the tree that connects her to boo, apart in the story line, seems light hearted, link to theme of growing up, positive cover, allows the type to grab attention. feminine book cover.doesn't depict the race of scout NO LINK TO BIRD
no links to the story line just the mocking bird idea, no information about the subject area/issues in the book, very feminine. doesn't give away an them or idea in the book very ambiguous
again link to scout the main character playing in the tree, text seem more hand-drawn but also agressive to represent the harsh story line? very similar to the first. doesn't depict the race of scout. NO LINK TO BIRD
links to scout and the tree again but also to this time involves the mocking birds, combines the themes, very simple cover that uses the branches to express the title doesn't depict the race of scout, no link to the social issues in the book more links to the title.
less feminine, hand-drawn child link imagery of the bird links to the age of scout in the book, seems as if the bird could have been drawn via scout, dark cover to reflect the dark themes, harsh strong text to work with the ideas in the book being serious issues, this book is overall more serious/less lighthearted than the other styles seen. This cover is less obvious, doesn't give away much of the story line.
This book depicts the children in the story looking on the the Radley house, a strong part of the book, links to the children finding it scary/playing outside the house, heavily links to part of the story line but no link to race/social issues in the town.Links to the tree again. NO LINK TO BIRD, gives away a main part of the story line.
included a quote about the book, author larger than the title, bird on the cover reflects the personification of tom as the bird in the book after he is killed even though he does no harm, harsh bold slab serif text relating to the harsh nature of the book
link to the film imagery, shows strong bond between characters, ambiguous, no links to themes, shows scout as a tom-boy, representative of the film.
very decorative/feminine due to the illustration style and the hand-drawn text, no link to the themes, link to the title and the quote, aims at a female audience
features-
ONLY ONE COVER SEEM AS IF WROTE /DESIGN FROM SCOUTS POINT OF VIEW
VERY FEMININE
INCLUDE BIRD/SCOUT
FEMININE TEXT/TYPE
LINKS TO THE FILM
LINKS TO SCENES, HOUSE/TREE
AMBGIOUS BUT LINKS TO STORY LINE
WIDE RANGE OF COLORU SCHEMES
HARDLY ANY LINKS TO RACE/SOICAL ISSES
HARDLY ANY LINKS TO THE DARK THEMES IN THE BOOK
ALL FEEL VERY FORMAL
AIMS AT A FEMALE AUDIENCE
ILLUSTRATION HEAVY
TEXT MAIN FEATURE
Design For Different Sources
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| This cover implies a very serious book due to the slab serif typeface, all the elements of of the cover are used to represents parts of the story as the illustration used has two interpretations first as the tire swing scout uses but also as the hanging robe Tom Robinson is sentenced to use. Using this it links to scouts youth/lighthearted ness but also the serious deadly issues in the book. The colour scheme behind this imagery is taken from the american flag, red and blue to represent the origins and setting of the story. |
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Simple cover uses black and white to reflect the race issues in the storyline by reflecting both races in the book in contrast, as well as uses a hanging rope to represent how the mocking bird in the story (tom) was suppose to get hanged by the court. This simple illustration represents heavily large parts of the book as it represents the race issues due to the colour , the death in the book as this causes death, courtroom/political issues as this is the way the court in those days would subject the death penalty, this also reflect the time frame of the story as it an outdated method only used in those times.      |
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| This book cover represents how scout was dressed when she was attacked, the cover takes a small part of the story but uses it to create ambiguity as it doesn't give away any of the story line except that someone was once dressed as a ham. This is the only book that uses this twist on the cover but allows it to be effective as it causes the audience to be more interested, it also doesn't portray the book as dark tale but as a more humous light hearted book due to the nature of the casual more imperfect typeface and hand-drawn style of imagery |
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| This book again links to one very small aspect of the book, its that when they go to trial Scout and Jem sit in the black row in the courtroom this highlights the race issues in the book as it shows how separated the court was and how many white people where in the jury. Its very minimal but effective due to the obvious link once the book has been read, without reading the book the cover seems very ambiguous but then after the audience will realize the link. This book plays on the race theme has a heavy role in the books plot and how the story unfolds. This cover doesn't make the theme know obvious as it uses dot to represent people rather than illustrations, this is done so the subject of the book isn't given away to the audience straight away, it encourages the audience to read it so they understand the cover. |
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COMPARISON
Overall the book cover designs not given by Penguin express more detailed or selected pieces of the film to represent their covers, they link more to the theme or issues discusses in the book. It seems from the brief that this style of books are more expression of the storyline rather than just the title of the book, therefore fit the brief we have been given better, they are more what Penguin wants to be produced for the brief and ambiguous cover but related to issues or parts of the story line.
This research has concluded that for this brief 2 book covers should be produced, one that relates the ambiguous style of the covers but also one that reflect the obvious response. The ambiguous response is due to the brief given, and research into existing coves examples not given by Penguin but an obvious responses cover will be experimented with as well to reflect the covers they have given for inspiration/ideas. After mock-up/design/idea for these covers have been produced feedback from part of the target audience for this brief will be asked what appeal to them the most, or what they feel fits the brief the best therefore this will give an accurate representation of what Penguin hopefully want for the cover.
main feature the book could include taken from the research features-
-mix of illustration and type
-type heavy
-colourful
-focus be the title
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