The Importance of Bookcovers
- tunyachinpilas
- Oct 6, 2016
- 2 min read
Bookcover
iconic
works similar to a poster
have some sort of engagement
David Pearson
Relationship of Type and Image
Composition and movement
Typographic Hierarchy
How type and image can be balanced
The image leaving your eye to the title, or the title leading your eye to the image
Ethics of Interrogation
At Swim Two Boys
Play with type and image separately - acetate maybe
Keep your options open - Try maybe 20 different fonts and styles
Develop image and type separately
Think about how significant type is to the image - does the word enhance the image?
Start to experiment with the title
Uppercase or lowercase
Organic or Manmade
Font
Size
The idea of positioning type to work in a way that it is addressing the context inside
Sarah Hall
The beautiful Indifference
Gives us a very different way of reading
Type Hierarchy
Relative importance of elements in design e.g eye test charts
the size of a word compared to another suggests the significance of them
If famous, often the authors name will appear biggest on the cover as it makes readers interested in the book
Torsten Lindso Anderson, Jack Kerouac Cover
How much do you want your book to have immediate effect or do you want the cover to be mysterious
intrigue and engage more slowly? - is read at reader’s own pace
the idea of the book being a real object, real scale
Treat type as the image
Representation and Metaphor
Peter Mendelsund ‘Metamorphosis’
Paul Rand
Images as metaphors
Think about the structure of the book
fluid or rigid?
Hidden Character
A mystery
we want to know more
we try to make eye contact
why are they hiding themselves / why are they being hidden?
covering the face
partial information
Drama of Viewpoint
Are they Challenging us ? think about viewpoint
bird’s eye - godly narrative
point of view of main character?
The book cover can be all type and then the inside images can be pure imagery
Retain the atmosphere - read your text - Get to know it
Inside illustrations and cover must relate but doesn’t exactly have to work in the same way
the book is an object
it can be touched/handled
think about the texture/scale/weight
paper stock - hardback or paper back? what difference does it make?
print or kindle ?
Experiment & Application
Fiction is a constructed frame
Fact is a primary engagement with the real
Examine how and why society conveys it’s stories
production
distribution
Graham Raule
illustrator
designer
film maker
The visuality of research
The richness of imagery
Open to looking at new things
new people
new ideas
Look into creative coding
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