Finished sb1 design boards

Callum O’Reilly 261713

Studio Brief 1 Penguin Book Competition OUGD406 Callum O’Reilly Level 4

Studio Brief 1

Callum O’Reilly 261713

Rationale

Studio Brief 1

The book design is to have a strong conceptual background relating the subliminal messaging relaying key themes throughout the book. Focusing on the key quote “Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin To Kill a Mockingbird”. The cover should highlight key themes within the book, such as innocence developing into experience, segregation and prejudice. This is evident within the design through the layering of the scribbles into the paint showing a development of childlike technique into a more experienced developed technique. Prejudice and segregation are apparent in the contrast between light and dark. The key quote is picked up on through the list of the 7 deadly sins, the 8th becoming ‘to kill a mockingbird’, referring to importance of the quote in the book.

Callum O’Reilly 261713

Research

Studio Brief 1

I began by researching what was currently on the market in terms of book cover designs for my chosen book, both online and in person. As this brief was highly based around visuals I wanted to see what the current publishers deemed appropriate to visually capture the novel. From my findings I gathered that most of the current and past book covers were extremely obvious, featuring the mockingbird or the tree which Boo Radley left his tokens for the children. Although these covers were successful in terms of being designed well, I believed there intentionally obvious manner gave them a look of children’s book, obvious imagery that directly references the book is something I want to avoid in my designs.

I then started researching into the key themes of the book, refreshing my pre-existing knowledge of the story, its background, its hidden features and morals, to ensure my design would be informed by the content of the book in a subliminal manner. Key themes which play a tremendous part in the book include the coexistence of good and evil, social inequality and of course the mockingbird; my challenge was to visually represent these in a way which would be unknown to someone new to the book without this previous knowledge. Another aspect my research led me to understand is there are key points in the book which if you further divulge into display a prime example of some of the morals it is trying to bestow on its readers, such as the fire, and the reading to Mrs. Dubose. My research also consisted of investigating the current colours used within the section, this was an influence on my design; seeing that mainly red and black is used. I wanted this to inform my decision to create a design that would attract the audience’s attention, yet also links with the cover design.

‘Shoot all the Bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a Mockingbird.’

I S B N 978-0-099-46673-4

9

780099 466734

90000

ebook available

Design Idea 3

Design Idea 1

Design Idea 2

Truman Capote

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£7.99

Design Idea 4

Harper Lee

'Someone rare has written this very fine novel, a writer with the liveliest sense of life and the warmest, most authentic humour. A touching book; and so funny, so likeable.'

8. To Kill a Mockingbird

A lawyer's advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of Harper Lee's classic novel - a black man charged with the rape of a white girl. Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores with exuberant humour the irrationality of adult attitudes to race and class in the Deep South of the thirties. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina of one man's struggle for justice. But the weight of history will only tolerate so much.

Harper Lee

Initial Design Ideas

Callum O’Reilly 261713

Design Idea 5

1. Lust 2.Gluttony 3.Greed 4.Sloth 5.Wrath 6.Envy 7.Pride

8. To Kill a Mockingbird

Studio Brief 1

Design idea 1 is a digital development, the cover features the actress who plays Scout in the well-known movie. The eyes have been blacked out to exemplify how Scout’s perception is the only characters’ which is consistent throughout. The colour pink is used to represent her innocence and childlike nature, developed into experience shown by the modern, clean cut mature approach to the overall design. The colour also allows the audience to be drawn to the book on the shelf.

Design idea 2 is a simplistic design, based on the core use of minimalism. The colour scheme represents the segregation between the people of Maycomb and Tom Robinson. The white bars intersecting the black sections portray the influence of racism and prejudice on characters in the book. The lines on the lower section do not completely go across the page, the title intervenes with this, representing Scout’s strong morals, not allowing the influences around her affect her perception.

Design Idea three has the potential to capture most of the key themes and ideas of the book, as well as one of the main quotes, through one visualisation and a list. The visualisation is blue and depicts a blood stain, representing ‘kill as many bluejays as you want’, the list refers to the seven deadly sins, the 8th becoming to kill a mockingbird; thus referring to the key quote ‘It is a sin to kill a mockingbird’ a key part in the book, that influences the children’s development in terms of their moral perception of their surroundings. Design idea 4 refers to the segregation and prejudice, through the visualisation of different skin tones in one person, visualising the way that there isn’t any difference, picking up on the quote ‘there’s only one type of folks, folks’ from Scout. This links to the way her perception is not changed, the children’s morals are developed strongly in the garden scene where Jem destroys Mrs Dubose’s garden and the children are punished; depicted in the floral print. The final design idea, highlights issues with the unfair trial of Tom Robinson, it is evident that he is innocent because of his injury to his left hand. This is depicted here by the hand written ‘not guilty’ done in the left hand by a right-handed person, in comparison to the Bodoni ‘guilty’ a so called ‘oldfashioned’ typeface, similar to the prejudice and attitudes of the Maycomb people. This is further highlight by all the other text on the page being Bodoni, reverting the audience’s attention towards the hand written type. The division between the two is recognised by the contrasting hues.

A lawyer's advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of Harper Lee's classic novel - a black man charged with the rape of a white girl. Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores with exuberant humour the irrationality of adult attitudes to race and class in the Deep South of the thirties. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina of one man's struggle for justice. But the weight of history will only tolerate so much.

'Someone rare has written this very fine novel, a writer with the liveliest sense of life and the warmest, most authentic humour. A touching book; and so funny, so likeable.'

Truman Capote

1. Lust 2.Gluttony 3.Greed 4.Sloth 5.Wrath 6.Envy 7.Pride

arrow books I S B N 978-0-099-46673-4

9

ebook available

‘Shoot all the Bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a Mockingbird.’

'Someone rare has written this very fine novel, a writer with the liveliest sense of life and the warmest, most authentic humour. A touching book; and so funny, so likeable.'

Truman Capote

8. To Kill a Mockingbird

A lawyer's advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of Harper Lee's classic novel - a black man charged with the rape of a white girl. Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores with exuberant humour the irrationality of adult attitudes to race and class in the Deep South of the thirties. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina of one man's struggle for justice. But the weight of history will only tolerate so much.

arrow books

£7.99

I S B N 978-0-099-46673-4

9

780099 466734

I S B N 978-0-099-46673-4

9

Harper Lee

90000

ebook available

1. Lust 2.Gluttony 3.Greed 4.Sloth 5.Wrath 6.Envy 7.Pride

8. To Kill a Mockingbird

Truman Capote

arrow books

£7.99

8. To Kill a Mockingbird

90000

780099 466734

Harper Lee

£7.99

'Someone rare has written this very fine novel, a writer with the liveliest sense of life and the warmest, most authentic humour. A touching book; and so funny, so likeable.'

8. To Kill a Mockingbird

Harper Lee

8. To Kill a Mockingbird

A lawyer's advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of Harper Lee's classic novel - a black man charged with the rape of a white girl. Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores with exuberant humour the irrationality of adult attitudes to race and class in the Deep South of the thirties. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina of one man's struggle for justice. But the weight of history will only tolerate so much.

Harper Lee

‘Shoot all the Bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a Mockingbird.’

‘Shoot all the Bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a Mockingbird.’

780099 466734

Harper Lee

Development

Callum O’Reilly 261713

Studio Brief 1

Harper Lee

1. Lust 2.Gluttony 3.Greed 4.Sloth 5.Wrath 6.Envy 7.Pride

8. TO KI LL A MOC KI N GBI R D

90000

ebook available

My design development stemmed from the feedback received for my chosen design, out of the 5 variations I created visual mock-ups of. My feedback told me to play around with the idea of composition changing the positioning of the text and the listed items, giving the cover an overall more gridded and complete composition that plays on the idea of white space; keeping the modernist style. Whilst experimenting with the composition of my chosen design, I decided to experiment with the spine; by using this space to place the image it maximises the white space on the front cover in keeping with the minimal style, although it made the cover look sparse and uninspiring, which doesn’t reflect the content of the book. This led me to develop a different kind of imagery to depict the blood splatter of a blue jay, and other key themes such as innocence developing into experience, depicted by water colour pencil scribble in a childlike manner spread into a painted style. This is to be placed on the right hand side of the book leaving the left for the text. I further experimented with other materials to create this edit above, the colours have been intensified from my original design to create more of a contrast between the pencil and paint, highlighting its concept more. This also allowed me to create a better contrast between the light and dark elements, illustrating the sharp division of the segregation within the book.

Callum O’Reilly 261713

Evaluation

Studio Brief 1

My final design is an imaginative unobvious concept which depicts key themes from the book in an adult like manner which take insight into the book to be able to understand, which was required from the brief. Key themes presented in the book such as segregation is visually shown through strong contrast within the imagery, the metaphor of killing a mockingbird being a sin is exemplified in form of a list of the 7 deadly sins, making to Kill a Mockingbird the 8th. The typeface chosen is modern, contrasting against some of the older ideas of segregation and inequality of the book, it also kept the focus on the abstract illustration; which is the strongest element of the concept. In my final design feedback, I received was majority positive, yet some thought due to the complex nature of the reasoning behind the abstract visuals, by having text based design (meant to compliment it) may make it seem over complicated. Yet I think due to the target audience of the book, being adult based, this more complex cover is needed and in fits with some of the hidden themes of the books and key scenes, which you need to look more into to be able to understand. To improve the design if I was the person to produce it, rather than being fully printed, I would have the colour and visual elements to the product printed to the book and the text placed over it on an acetate sleeve, making it separate from the cover itself. This would allow the cover to be solely visual, while also adding texture.

Final Design Mockup