book cover design choices

for this brief I want to create different versions of the book covers, I will create at least 3 different designs for the range. I want to keep the focus on type design rather than illustration and will focus on that as my restriction for this brief.

Third 'james and the giant peach design. I got the inspiration from carolyn sewell note taking style which I looked at earlier on. I wanted to use quotes from james and the giant peach in a notebook style like that. But I found it worked better placing it in a peach shape. I quite like this design.

since i already started on this book cover design i decided to finish it of, who knows it could have turned out quite nicely. Personally I think it looks a little messy there is almost too much going on. Although it could display the mess of the journey. I considered making a 50 year edition box set for james and the giant peach when I first decided to create this design. But decided to scrap it and create a little box set instead.

I decided to change the blurb into a circular shape so that it worked better with the theme of the book, and so the main information is placed in a similar format on the front and back covers

When playing around with colour I decided to change the typical blue sea and sky combo, and opted for a different style. I quite like the brown and purple cover design. Although some tester print outs are a must, I have to make sure the writing is legible.

I have played around with colour and found that I like these four colour combinations the best. I will bring all 4 print outs and ask people which ones they think works best. Although the idea behind the cover is that the peach is floating on water and the word marvelous is made out of the clouds, the brown isn't the best colour decision, but I would like to ask around to see what people think. If it needs to be based on the sea and sky at all, or if it works just as words. I also want to try changing the orange a little bit, since it looks a little strong compared to the blue, the orange colour used on the first tester (top of blog post) would probably work better.

I have decided to extend this brief to create a box set for roald dahl. I will focus on three of roald dahls most popular book cover designs and create a small box set of 'the best of roald dahl' although he has a lot of books that have become extremely famous I decided to focus on three to stick to a smaller box set which would be easier for sales. I have decided to do charlie and the chocolate factory and matilda.

I followed the same rules as I used for the james and the giant peach cover, and found a quote which I thought was really cheerful and happy. I quite like this concept since it focusses on what is happening inside the book through quotations rather than imagery. Although i have decided to incorporate really simple imagery to display the idea behind the book as well. For james and the giant peach it was the obvious choice of the giant peach. Charlie and the chocolate factory I decided to make it in the shape of a chocolate bar, which should be relatively easy as it makes a rectangle, and for matilda I want to create a book shape.

Open publication - Free publishing - More hand drawn