Redesigning Book Covers Bailey Wells Ty p o g r a p h y 0 2 Michael Selby
Concept statement
Feminine leadership, classical times To suggest: heroines: feminine, yet still powerful classical style, medieval style relation to modern day greek gods, kings, catholic church more subdued colors some romantic elements sense of royalty, high class wartime
w ord list critical historical leadership women feminism queen greek arthur royalty war armies church * key words in red
catholicism dieties myths legends immortality mortality time motherhood romance strength hardships camraderie unite
modern relative compare contrast art martyrdom zeus power stronghold fortress protection troy
sacrifice queen love faithfulness sources fire kings rulers argument personal heroine cross
tone
graphs Modern
Classic
Romantic
Factual
Methodical
Classified
Informative
Entertaining
Serious Argumentative Poetic Wide audience
Fun Non-biased Biographic Narrow audience
Sophisticated
Relaxed
Religious
Secular
audience
persona Carolyn is a 43 year old professor, who teaches at the University of Illinois in the history department. Her area of special study is women in history. She loves to continually gather more knowledge on this subject, and more specifically likes to study women who have been great leaders. She knows more about women leaders during the past three or four hundred centuries than she knows about those throughout classical times. Carolyn would eventully like to use this knowledge that she is gaining as more material to teach to her students. Carolyn is also involved in the feminist group on campus, and participates in their meetings and events that they hold. She believes that women can be powerful and effective as leaders, and encourages the women in her community to make a difference.
rough concept
statements Feminine leadership, classical times Women leadership in history Classical women being leaders Historical examples of women leaders
series joan of arc
The message in this book is essentially to compare the life of Joan of Arc to recent works of literature. The author does this by thinking critically about her life while including modern pieces of literature, which include authors Mark Twain, Virginia Woolf, and George Bernard Shaw. By doing this, the author sends a message about the importance of the life of Joan of Arc and how it relates to our modern quest for self-understanding. I chose thise book to go with my theme of historic feminine leaders, because Joan of Arc is one of the more prominent strong female figures in history. This specific book also relates it to more modern pieces of literature, which adds a little spin to this novel, instead of it just existing as a biography.
series helen of troy
This book is also critically analyzing a story from history, more specifically, the myths and legends of Helen of Troy. The author tells her story and her interaction with other Greek characters and symbols. He then relates her to how she is depicted in art history and other literary works. I chose Helen of Troy as one of my historical feminine leaders because her story takes a different approach than that of Joan of Arc and Guinevere. Her story contrasts the other two in a few ways: one, Helen was an immortal being, and two, her way of leading was less prominent.
series gu i nevere
Reclamation of a Queen takes a more critical view on Guinevere, and discusses how the choices and decisions she made were influenced a great deal by men and masculinity of the time period. The author also relates this to a modern view of feminism, and compares and contrasts the Arthurian period to a modern period. I chose a book on Guinevere as my final historical feminine leader because she was also very prominent in history. The other reason I chose it is that this book relates her life to the modern world as well as the other books do. The author takes a more feminist standpoint from this one, and that commentary could very well relate to the other books (using this as the final book in the series could help “wrap it up.�
good cover
design
James & the Giant Peach - Simplified forms and colors - Image, no text
Columbine
Chances are...
- Image and text
- Image combined with text to create one “image�
- Meaning condensed to one word - Text reflects imagery as well as feeling of the title
- Meaning of images translates to feeling of the book
The Trouble with Physics - Text with no image - Text reflects the meaning behind the book - Attractive, fun to read
type studies
color p a l ette
imagery joan of arc
imagery helen of troy
imagery guinevere
first round
of Woman and Goddess
Ann W. Astell
Ann W. Astell
a n d s a c r i fi c i a l authorship
A N N W. A S T E L L
second round
third round
final designs
project overview
The goal of this project was to communicate the feel and meaning of our book series through text as well as image. Creating a theme and choosing three books to be designed as if they were to be packaged as a series allowed for a different process than normal, because we had to tell the story of each individual book as well as keep the books visually united. Designing for book covers is unique because the information from the book has to be translated to the viewer in a quick glance. There are multiple ways to do this, so as a designer, you have to choose the best method and explore the ways in which the feeling of the book is displayed.
project blurb
My bookcovers are designed to mimic the classical antiquity of three female figures, as well as employ a sense of leadership and feminism that their biographies tell. The imagery is in a modern light, though looking closely at classical themes, motifs, and patterns. The final book jackets cover hardback books that measure twelve inches by nine inches in spread form.