Orion book cover photoshoot

A2 Boards (D&AD)

The following screen shots are of the boards I sent to D&AD. Looking back I left myself with little time to design these in a coherent way. The first board for instance (directly below) doesn't have a shadow underneath resulting in the book appearing to float in mid air. Realistically I should have photographed the books as a set because it looks like I have only designed a single book instead of the whole set of 5.

Stickers

To explain that the dust jacket opens out into a poster I designed a set of stickers that would be placed on the front cover. Using the grid again as a base to create the type, I experimented with the use of the line illustration as well as the format - would the sticker be square or round for instance. Using the design whereby the sticker was covered with lines appeared to busy so I opted to use a just a couple of lines, lowering their opacity in order to become less intrusive.

Final sticker designs ^

Book rum

The hardback cover was printed onto canvas and re-backed onto one of the books I was using for mocking up this project. I wanted to use a simple design that included the wrapped lines from the dust jacket and the book title. In the end I decided that I didn't necessarily need the books title as it was compromising the illustration.

Final book rum design ^

Poster designs

My initial idea for the poster to be on the flip side of the dust jacket was to have the summery written out in the font I had specifically designed for this project. It became apparent that this wasn't working because the font I had created wasn't designed for body copy in mind. The design looked too busy no matter how much I kerned the letters or added line spacing.

Vetoing the summery Idea (above), I designed a series of illustrations using the block lines that wrap around the dust jacket. In the end I opted to simply blow up the front cover for the poster to save on time which was quickly running out.

Final poster design ^

Book cover spreads

The following screen shots are of each book cover spread. Each dust jacket will be able to fold out into a poster which will be printed on the flip side of each spread. I removed the gird from the design because I felt that it was too much on the eye leaving a series of lines that wrap around the book. In doing this you are able to follow the lines right around and inside the dust jacket.

Body copy font

I made numerous print outs of the right font to use for the body copy on the back cover of the book. I decided on Helvetica Ultra Light because it was none intrusive and didn't take away from the design on the front cover. Following the lines from the front cover that wrap around the whole book, I put the type on a 30 degree angle which meant that you had to physically turn the book in order to read the summery.

Inside dust jacket info ^

Colour...

I wanted to use colour not only to hold these book titles as a set but also to stand out on the shelves of bookstores. My initial proposals were too harsh when put with black text, from feedback in my crit I was told it may look better if the text was white. I lightened them down to more of a pastel colour that appeared warm and inviting - the exact ingredients you need in order to attract someones attention.