Lorna Milligan
OUGD503 SB01
Penguin Cover
Lorna Milligan
Rational Create a book cover for Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time that breaks boundaries, feels timeless and confident and appeals to a whole new generation of readers. Output must consider audience, typography and marketplace. The design must be imaginative and have a point of difference from the books it will be competing against.
OUGD503 SB01
Penguin Cover
Lorna Milligan
OUGD503 SB01
Research Initial research involved reading the book and picking theories that had interesting imagery. This included black holes, space/time and diffraction. The book is non-specialist, it would be appropriate for all with no need for prior understanding of physics. The target audience is a new generation of readers, slightly younger than the current target audience. It is important that the cover appeals to younger people without being condescending.
The existing market place was also considered. Research was conducted on existing covers and covers of other books in the genre that are doing well.
Penguin Cover
Lorna Milligan
OUGD503 SB01
Concepts The concept behind the cover was to show visually a topic discussed in the book. Ideas included showing the event horizon of a black hole, illustrating space time and showing the constiuents of an atom using gemetric paterns. Inspiration was taken from old text book digrams, visits to CERN and science musums album covers such as Pink Floyds Dark Side of the Moon. Target audience was considered throughout the ideation stage. Ideas included the use of bright or neon colours and giving the book a more approachable feel, making sure to stay away from anything that might look like a school text book
Penguin Cover
Lorna Milligan
OUGD503 SB01
Penguin Cover
Prototypes
This cover design is based around Hawking’s argument that two space dimensions would not be enough to support complicated creatures like animals. He explains how a two-dimensional creature would not be able to eat as they would not be able to digest it completely, because if there is a passage right through its body, it would divide the creature into two separate halves.
This design is inspired by Chapter 5: Elementary Particle and Forces of Nature. In this chapter, Hawking explains the that atoms are not fundamental particles, but are in fact made up of smaller constituents. He tells us that atoms can be broken down into protons and neutrons and smaller counterparts such as electrons and Quarks. A proton is made up of two up quarks and one down quark. A neutron is made up of two down and one up quarks. The illustration on the cover shows an oxygen atom which contains 8 neutrons, 8 protons and 8 electrons (shown on the outer ring). Inside each neutron/proton is their respective quarks.
Lorna Milligan
This cover is a painting by Lewis Andrews (fine art, LUA). It shows Section SI1. It relates to the discussion of blackhole in space within the book. This is paired with the typeface Bodoni to create a classy, refined overall look.
OUGD503 SB01
Penguin Cover
The title on this design is made to look like a division equation with logarithms as the ‘e’ in ‘time’ and a differential instead of an ‘f’ in ‘of’. Brackets also add to the aesthetic of an equation. The design is handwritten to make it look more convincing. The complementing typeface is Kohinoor Bangla.
Lorna Milligan
OUGD503 SB01
Penguin Cover
Development After evaluating the effectiveness of the prototype covers and critical feedback from peers the two-space dimension cover was chosen to develop further. When developing the cover, illustrations were improved and composition of the design was considered. The main developments were focused on the back cover. The design was extended, following the flat style shown on the front. The design shows the orbital paths of planets and other space related objects. The image of the dog on the front is quite obscure and may
not make sense until the reader has read the book. The space illustrations help give a greater sense of self to the book. The typeface has remained consistent throughout the design, using Krungthep.
Lorna Milligan
OUGD503 SB01
Final Outcome and Evaluation
The design chosen to develop further is not traditional for a factual physics book but the design is different and pushes boundaries. This is what the brief asked for. The equation design could have also been developed further but this was a safer option and the brief called for something that would have a point of difference against other books in the genre. This cover uses a style of illustration which would appeal to a new audience and may interest a readership that would not usually pick a factual book. The design uses a strong illustrative style throughout. Although the illustrative content does relate to what is written, this style may be its downfall as it could suggest science fiction content.
Penguin Cover