SB1 Brief Evaluation

The book needed to be a particular size, these guidelines were followed and a 5x5 grid was created, I used this type of grid as I felt it gave the book enough spacing to be modern in terms of retains the use of negative spacing throughout, as well as keeping both the front and back consistent. The same spacing above all of the visuals was used tying the front and back cover together as one piece, with its visual similarities.

The only type used within the piece is Futura, this was chosen to show a strong contemporary approach and coincides with the idea of simplicity on the cover. The authors name was highlighted with italics, differentiating it to any of the other content on the page. Similar to the back cover, the reviews of the book are highlighted in bold, giving them a point of difference drawing attention. I believe this was a better choice than using Helvetica as it is overused in modern design, specifically in covers due to its lack in personality to keep the focus on the cover itself. Yet this oversaturation of Helvetica does the opposite rather than making the book stand out as modern, and keeping the attention on the cover it makes it blend in with the rest of the books on the shelf.

The images used on the cover were created by myself, behind which the material and colour have reasoning, reflecting themes and subliminal concepts in the book, the visuals on the cover I believe are the most important thing to me. This is emphasised by the colour of the spine, selected through a sample of the imagery. The imagery is further backed up with the use of the list, explaining the concept behind the imagery when linked to the quote, which is evident on the back cover.

Overall I believe I was successful in completing this brief with enough of an unobvious conceptual idea that had reasoning behind it to comply with the needs of the competition briefing. Although the imagery and concept was criticised as over complex within my final feedback session, majority of the feedback I received was positive; after considering how my development has led to my design decision. I also believe due to the target audience being adult the complexity of this cover gives it an edge and a modern take on a classic book, possibly opening it up to a wider audience.

If I were to redo this design I would carry out more experimentation with the materials I used, and possibly explore the idea of separating the concepts that the visuals capture within the cover; making them more evident to the reader. Although due to this being a live competition brief, time was a major constricting factor when it came to design development. I would have also liked to experiment with different ways of manipulating the format possibly experimenting with embossing, although the brief required a printed outcome.