The Final Cover

Layout Experiments

After creating a series of images I was happy with, I started playing around with the layout and type, and composing several different cover designs.

In most cases, I spanned the background image across the front and back cover, as to emphasize the idea of expansion. I decided not to add any colour, as the images were already quite complex and intricate, and I did not want to make them too confusing. In fact, the complexity of the images turned out to be a bit of a problem, as placing the text directly on top of them made it unreadable. Instead, I had to place the text on a solid colour background or find other ways to make it easy to read. In the end, I was quite happy with several of these covers. I thought each of them suggested something different but equally interesting, which made it harder to choose a final outcome.

>>> Penguin Style <<<

Following decades of the renown iconic black, white and orange covers, with their simple, almost academic style, the most recent Penguin publications have proved to be something completely different – often illustrated and always exciting.

Previous winners of the Penguin Student Design Awards seem to have a strong use of typography and composition, as well as illustration and style. Most have joined back and front covers, or back covers which somehow refer and link to the image on the front, creating a sense of coherence and wholeness.

Much like the back cover, the spine of a book must also be thought of, as when books sit on shelves, that is the only side which remains visible. Previous entries to this competition show spines which have some kind of element that makes them different and more appealing than your average book spine. This is specially true of the Fiction and Children’s book covers.

From what I can tell, the Non-Fiction entries and winners appear to have very neutral colours and are definitely not as bright and colourful as the examples in the Fiction and Children’s categories. This made me think that it may be better to use a monochrome or neutral palette when designing my cover.

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I-n-s-p-i-r-a-t-i-o-n

I resorted to Pinterest to find some inspiration and examples of successful cover designs. I created a folder in which I would save any interesting covers I would find. You can click the video below to watch me naviagte through it or you can open the folder, which is constantly being updated with new examples, and navigate through it yourself.

Again, the Non-Fiction covers would generally be less colourful than the Fiction ones, usually in black & white or using minimal palettes.

I found a few examples of A Brief History of Time that looked very different from other existing covers, which you can see below. I think the first one is successful in depicting the passage of time; while the minimalism of the second is certainly very appealing – it makes the book less likely to be thought of as “heavy”.

I found it interesting that both of these examples also had a very soothing palette of colours, with sort of pastel tones. Even though I liked this and thought it made the covers look appealing, I did not think it made much sense, as the colours don’t really refer to anything discussed in the book.

The Penguin Brief

I am always looking for opportunities and projects which allow me to explore my work and style within a commercial, “industry-appealing” perspective. That said, I thought the Penguin Brief was more suitable for me.

From the options available in this brief, I selected “A Brief History of Time”, by Stephen Hawking, as my book of choice. Though I usually prefer to work with Fiction books, I thought it could be more interesting and challenging to illustrate a Non-Fiction work this time.

I have never actually read “A Brief History of Time”, but I am familiar with it and I saw this brief as an opportunity to learn more about a fascinating subject.

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The Brief

In “A Brief History of Time”, Stephen Hawking attempts to explain a range of subjects in cosmology, including the Big Bang, black holes and light cones, to the non-specialist reader. The book became a bestseller and sold more than 10 million copies.  It was also on the London ‘Sunday Times’ bestseller list for more than five years and was translated into more than 35 languages.

We are looking for a cover design that breaks boundaries in the way that the book did when it was published 30 years ago, in 1988. It should not look like a textbook you read at school! This is a revolutionary science book with popular appeal. If you can get your hands on a copy of the book in order to get a sense of the narrative and concepts this will only help to inspire your design. The cover should feel timeless, confident and appeal to a whole new generation of readers.

We are looking for a striking cover design that is well executed, has an imaginative concept and clearly places the book for its market. While all elements of the jacket need to work together as a cohesive whole, remember that the front cover must be effective on its own and be eye-catching within a crowded bookshop setting. It also needs to be able to work onscreen for digital retailers such as Amazon.

The winning design will need to:

• have an imaginative concept and original interpretation of the brief
• be competently executed with strong use of typography
• appeal to a contemporary readership
• show a good understanding of the marketplace
• have a point of difference from the other book covers it is competing against

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Aware that I would not have time to read “A Brief History of Time” in time for this brief, I looked up a few summaries, videos and documentaries that could help me grasp a sense of what theories are discussed in this book:

• Stephen Hawking – A Brief History of Time (1991);
• Stephen Hawking’s big ideas… made simple;
• A Briefer History of Time by Stephen Hawking: the verdict;

I then thought it best to quickly search what kind of covers had already been done for this specific book.

Apart from a couple of recent examples, these covers seemed quite boring, to be honest. Being a Non-Fiction book, I suppose it is less likely to be illustrated which, to me, makes it less appealing. The most common colours used here are black and blue, and the title is usually printed in big or bold letters. Images often depict Stephen Hawking himself or circular elements, such as planets or stars, or figures which refer to black holes.

I found the most recent examples (the main featured cover and the one on the lower left corner) very nice. Both depict a circular form which I believe is meant to represent a black hole. They are both simpler and more colourful than the traditional covers of this book, which I found more engaging.

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Proposal

Most covers of “A Brief History of Time” are very bold, dull and dark. Given the fact that this is a book which deals with complex theories, I do not think the existing covers for it are very successful. They contribute to the identification of this book as “heavy”, which does not make it appealing to the public.

This book was not written for academics, but rather for everyone, even those with no understanding of science theories. Thus, I think it is important to make it more appealing to young people, as it could make them interested in following a career in Physics or Cosmology.

Instead of focusing on reflecting its complexity, we should be trying to reflect how interesting it is. Thus, I intend to get away from the style often used in the existing covers and do something which feels lighter and less ‘cramped’.
I propose to create an illustrated cover that is simple – perhaps even minimal, yet interesting. It should be engaging but not contain too much information, and the illustrated style ought to appeal to a younger audience.

Vanessa & Virginia

While borrowing a book by Virginia Woolf from the LCC library to read in my spare time, I remembered Virginia’s first edition books had very nice illustrated covers. They were made by Virginia’s own sister, Vanessa Bell, who was an artist and member of the Bloomsbury group.

What I like about Vanessa’s covers is that they appear very raw, very hand-made, as if she drew the cover of each and every copy of a book, one by one.
Perhaps this comes from the style of her drawings, or the feeling that she didn’t bother making them perfect and rather embraced their imperfections.

Either way, I feel these are very interesting, unique covers, which certainly capture the atention of potential buyers. As such, I thought I’d use them as inspiration for my own designs.