Design Boards, Penguin Design Awards 'The Outsiders" by Jane Hansesgaard

FRONT COVER

The Penguin Design Awards 2014, Children Brief is asking for a new cover design to be made for S.E. Hinton’s classic novel set in 1965, Tulsa, Oklahoma. The purpose is to promote this book again and give it a renewed presence on the book shelves in retail environments as well as by online retailers. Focus should be on imaginative concept and strong use of typography.

The new front cover design is intended to catch the attention of this generation’s readers with its minimalistic illustration and strong colour contrast. This is complimented by a characteristic typeface used for the title which has been embossed in order to emphasize the context of the title. The green triangle symbolises the hill where main characters Ponyboy and Johnny took refuse. The cross on the top depicts the church on top of the hill.

The overall theme of the cover is a translation of the war between the two gangs ‘The Greasers’ and the ‘Socs’ with the triangle dissecting the over sized letter ‘O’ and the pattern with the split squares representing two worlds.

BACK COVER

The design used on the front cover flows across to the back cover to create a sense of unity and to help draw focus around the cover text at the top. The deliberate use of complimentary colours helps to create a contrast in the same way as the underlying story line highlights contrast and differences in society.

The colour scheme and design are intended to move the identity away from the previous more male orientated look towards a unisex look which will target a non gender specific audience from teenagers to young adults.

FULL JACKET

The full jacket digitally submitted in response to Penguin Design Awards 2014. The artwork has been created using the supplied template and copy text. No mocks up or boards were required for submission at this point.

RESEARCH

In the research of previous front covers of The Outsiders it was discovered that most of them are capturing images of the main characters from the film. The majority are image based rather than using illustrations. There is a strong target towards the male audience.

On the shelves in the book stores the goal was to look from a distance and identify which covers stood out and why. The shelves looked very busy and overwhelming and for that reason covers with simplistic design and strong impact of colour were the ones catching the attention.

Part of the research was also looking into covers of books that were classified as ‘Books About Real Problems’ targeted at teenagers and young adults. Another area of research covered ‘Creative Book Covers’. Here a noticeable trend is that simplicity in design and big blocks of colour are dominant.

DESIGN DEVELOPMENT Typeface

bender inline

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

bender solid

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz ARIEL REGULAR

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

Colour

Simplicity and strong typography as well as solid block colours have been the main consideration for the design choice which was based on research.

Orange

Green

Grey

C0 M75 Y100 K0

C50 M0 Y100 K0

C0 M0 Y0 K50

The strong and heavy typeface Bender was chosen for the title having the benefit of both an inline and solid version. The enlarged â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; is working as a focal point laid over the simple illustration. To contrast the characterful Bender, a choice of Ariel was made for the copy text due to its neutral and light apperance and its high readability. The starting point for the colour scheme was the green to depict the hill described in the book. In order to create bigger impact from a distance and at the same time increase the readability of the title a mid green colour was chosen. The introduction of orange adds contrast and invites the female reader into the audience as well as the male. The grey is used as a subtle tone for the split squares forming the pattern introduced both on the front and back. A white stock was chosen in order to make the design stand out.

MOCK UPS & FINISHING

In order to add a degree of dimension to the front cover the title has been embossed. This idea was also brought on due the title being â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;The Outsidersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and having the letters raised from the background mirrors the context of the gang being separated from the norm. The final mock was digitally printed on a Colour Jet Card, Super Resolution Duo, 245g which has a matt finish. A coated stock would be proposed for the final stock as it is likely to help highlight the embossing more and would have the benefit of being more resistant and resilient to dirt and use.

Test prints were made and mocked up on books to test the jacket would work. Variations on colour scheme were compared. In order to test impact and readability the mock ups were put in between other books and viewed at various distances to gauge whether it would stand out and to judge if the title was big enough.

FURTHER PRODUCTS & DISTRIBUTION

The book would be distributed across all main book retailers in the UK and displayed on the shelves and in some cases on tables. Additional channels of distribution would include ebook stores where at first glance it would be viewed at a lot smaller scale so impact is even more of essence.

In Store Point of Sale is proposed in the form of a cardboard floor stand as demonstrated in the mock up. This would hold at least 12 books with the option of showing both front and back cover to allow the audience to read the cover story immediately as they approach the stand. Visually this could also help to attract an element of attention due to the vivid colours.

As part of further products designed to promote the book outside of the retail environment a T-Banner for use on buses is suggested. The channel would reach a wide audience and have high visual impact. The mock up is to demonstrate how this would appear.