Penguindesignboard

Brief, Idea Generation & Research • ‘We would like you to design a new, classic cover for Caitlin Moran's book, How to Be a Woman.

The design needs to feel timeless and classic, whilst at the same time making it clear to the reader that it is very entertaining and often very funny. The book should feel very accessible, immediately ‘pickupable’ and something that exists within the world of Popular Culture. You are welcome to use an image of the author, but do not feel that you need to take that approach. The ideal design will make us smile, make us want to own a copy of the book, and keep it proudly on our shelves for a long time.’

From reading the brief again after struggling for ideas, I found the main aspect of the brief that I found important was - 'making it clear to the reader that it is very entertaining and often very funny. The book should feel very accessible, immediately ‘pickupable’ and something that exists within the world of Popular Culture.' Therefore after mind mapping ideas and tutorials, I found an idea to be the best of using a list written within the book. This list can be seen as funny but mainly relatable to a lot of working women/mothers. From my tutorial, my feedback was to follow this idea as the concept was strong, in addition it was also noted that women like to make lists encouraging the idea.

OUGD503 Studio Brief 1 Emma Nicholls 257322

As the book is targeted for woman and it is my intention and what it asked of the brief to make the book cover clearly an entertainment book - I felt that 'Chick Lit' would be a good area to research as the cover designs are quite feminine and also have the aim of being 'pickupable' and clearing showing to the readers that it is an entertaining and funny book. Chick Lit book covers are so recognisable and clearly indicate modern womanhood, humour and lightheartedness. They predominantly use feminine imagery, bright colours and decorative/script typography.

This clearly indicates that these books are aimed at woman by being so obviously feminine and 'girly' that the covers don't necessary appeal to everyone's taste but it puts the book into a category so its readers can clearly understand the type of book.

This way of marketing is clever and although I didn't want to make the cover overly 'girly,' Chick Lit book covers use the same technique that I'm hoping to achieve of being aimed at woman and clearly an entertaining book.

Therefore I wanted to follow some of the same conventions of these books but toned down as the book - is a feminist book, so it would be counteractive to give it a stereotypical 'woman's read' cover.

Individual Practice Penguin Design Awards

Design Boards Page 1

Development, Concept & Final Outcome For my concept, as a lot of Chick Lit covers uses illustrative elements, I decided I wanted to use illustrations of a cup of tea, some ginger nuts and a hand holding the list. This sets the scene of a woman checking her list while having a brew and a snack and adds a element of humour as its ironic as the woman is eating the ginger nuts while reading her lists which states she no longer does. I feel this is successful as the humorous element and scene is very relatable to women making it 'pickupable' and the humorous element clearly shows that its an entertaining book. I asked Hana Skarett (an Illustrator) to draw the three objects and had her permission to use them for my cover. As I knew her work, I knew her style would be fitting for the illustrations and am very happy with the final outcomes.

I wanted quite gender neutral colours to achieve my aim of a toned down Chick Lit cover. As the illustrations are quite gentle and uses warm colours, I tried a few different colours and felt beige worked best for the background. This enhances the scene within the illustration and emits a homely, warm, familiar feel to the audiences. The use of orange for the typography is also used to compliment the ginger nuts, but allows the cover to feed the eye around the cover for its viewers.

Furthermore, different arrangements were tested for the cover as balance is very important along with also directing the eye around the cover.

From research I found that all of Cailtlin Moran's books use the same type and arrangement for the design of the authors name. Therefore I wanted to stick with this as it would be recognisable to the authors readers and adhere's to Moran's previous books. For the title itself,

OUGD503 Studio Brief 1 Emma Nicholls 257322

choosing the right typography was hard as I wanted it to be a script font to use similar conventions to Chick Lit covers but without being overly decorative. In the end I found 'Felt Tip Woman' on typekit which I believe works well, as it isn't overly decorative but still quite calligraphic and targets women. As the type looks hand rendered, it also adds a more raw, sincere quality to the cover which compliments the illustration, This together creates more of a genuine cover that will appeal to women.

The specification of clearly conveying the book as humorous and entertaining was what really drove the concept to inform the final design. There was a lot of problem solving tackled during this brief. I wanted my design to be really concept driven rather than going for obvious. This was a challenge but a challenge that I really enjoyed. I feel that my design ultimately is a lot stronger due to it being concept driven. This has taught me different ways I can interpret a brief and how important concepts are within destign.

I believe my design achieves my aim of clearly conveying that the book is entertaining and humorous. This is one of the main deliverables of the brief, and what really drove my ideas for my design, as well as my research which really helped to inform my final design. Therefore I feel I have successfully achieved what the brief has asked. I would of liked to of made the illustrations more clear as one of the illustration is cut off and looks a bit unfinished. Unfortunately my time management wasn't the best it could be, and I made a decision to accept it how it was to move onto other briefs. I still believe however that the final design is successful.

Individual Practice Penguin Design Awards

Design Boards Page 2