Sketchbook penguin awards
Bri ef
“The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton The original teenage rebel story . . . The Socs’ idea of having a good time is beating up Greasers like Ponyboy. Ponyboy knows what to expect and knows he can count on his brothers and friends — until the night someone takes things too far. S.E. Hinton was only seventeen when she wrote The Outsiders. Told in a direct, first-person voice, it is a miracle of honesty with immediate appeal and is still every bit as powerful now as when it was first published in 1967. Students are invited to design a whole new cover look for The Outsiders, in order to bring this classic to a new generation of readers, ensuring that this timeless story remains an integral part of every teenager’s bookshelf.” (Penguin Design Award 2014)
first t h oughts
I went to a book shop to look at book covers and figure out what I really think is a good book cover and what I should try to avoid. I also read the first pages of The Outsiders, just to get a hint of how it is written. I realized that I like the simple covers with focus on simple shapes and typography, I do not like covers with new photos of good looking people, or boring hand made illustrations that does not leave anything to the fantasy of the reader. Further more The Outsiders is a teenage book, so I also tried to compare the children’s or teenage book section with the adult books, to see if there was any difference between the average teenage book cover and the average adult book cover. I ended up thinking that maybe there is no important difference (comparing adult books with teenage books, not children’s books). I think that when you are a teenager you like what looks “adult”, and therefore I will also try to avoid making the cover too childish. Some of the notes (I made them directly after being at the book shop): > 60’s - colours and shapes > Two gangs fighting each other - silhouettes? > Haircuts - the 60’s > Music - the 60’s > Eyes - green/gray > Blurry photo from the 60’s - already done? > Cut in two pieces? > Smashed glass?
in spirati on
These examples of book covers, illustrations and movie posters are all found at Pinterest.com. I like them because of their simplicity, smartness and elegance. They are simple and clean and yet they tell you everything you need to know without telling too much.
a s sociat ion s, id e a s a n d sk etches
I do not have the time to read the whole book, so I watched the movie based on the book instead, just to know the story. I wrote down associations and continued working with some of them. The mindmap: > Cherry > Two gangs > Socs / Greasers > Knife > Blood > Cigarettes > Package / Pattern > Water > Cars > Paul Newman > Grease > Shoes > Boots / Converse > Jeans Other notes: > Colours - orange? > Typography? > Torn paper > (Next to the sketch of the book at the second page:) Angry, broken, torn, outside, knife, blood, wound
sk et ch in g in illust rator
I ended up preferring two of my ideas, both based on the cover somehow being divided into two parts - blood and water. I like these ideas because they could be interpreted in a lot of different ways and connected to a lot of different themes in the book. For example, blood and water could symbolize the two different gangs of which the book tell us, or the saying “blood is thicker than water� referring to Ponyboy and his two brothers, or the fact that the Socs nearly drown Ponyboy which makes Johnny stabbing and killing one of the Socs, etcetera. I wanted some kind of rough feeling and therefore looked for a filter, texture or effect that could give me that. I did not find anything suitable in the program, so I tried to download some free textures which did not really work out either. Finally I found a big picture of concrete that I put over all the vector graphics and gave a really low opacity. The effect was exactly what I was looking for - a slightly rough surface and greyish colours. (The picture of concrete was found here: http://www. textureking.com/index.php/category/concrete.)
t ypography
Choosing typeface and making the typography work in the context was hard. The cover copy is not long, but it consists of a number of different small parts that made it hard to put everything together, and distinguish every section but still make them look good together. I made my way onto dafont.com to look for some fonts that might inspire me and be useful as the title font. I found a few (se the picture on top), and played around with them for a bit. Finally I chose “Cardnio Modern�, which I found being nice when I tracked it a little.
t ypography
Regarding the back cover and the rest of the text that is not the title, I could not use the same font as I did for the title font, because it does not work for bread texts. Seeing that the title font is quite special, I chose a classic serif font for the rest of the copy, “Adobe Caslon Pro”. I think that the two fonts work very well together because they do not “compete” with each other in hierarchy. It is clear that you should look at the title first where the text is a bit protruding and calls for your attention, and then move on and read more where the text is in a calm serif font that is easy to read. To not make the back cover copy too calm and boring, I have chosen to alternate it a bit by also using the bold, semibold and italic version of it. I played around with the text for a while. I moved and reshaped it, changed the colours, and asked my friends for opinions to find the best way to place and shape the text. Working with this, I realized that a number of my ideas had to go because they were not good enough. The pictures to the left are some of the ideas that made it quite long in the typography process.
n a rrowin g down
Now I had a bunch of ideas, but as we should hand in only two covers, I had to narrow down my further work. The two versions I chose can be seen to the left. I chose the first one because it was dynamic both regarding the shapes and typography, but still readable and simple. The text is in both black and white, which I think gives the typography more life and a clearer hierarchy, compared the other very similar example with only white text. The other two very similar examples with black and white text are both too dynamic. Looking at them it is hard to understand where the eye should start looking, and with the blood and water shapes there too, it just feels too messy. The typography needs to be a little strict to compensate the art work. The second one stands out from the other examples. I like it because it is very graphic and simple, and really lets the shapes of the drips to be seen, without anything else that interferes with them. The typography is simple and has a clear hierarchy that makes the text easy to read and follow, but it is still not boring. I think that this cover would, because of the big red drop on the front cover, really stand out among other books in a book shop or e-store. (All the examples that the pictures to the left are compared with can be found at the previous spread.)
‘. . . the hand at the back of my neck was strong. I’m drowning, I thought . . .’ The Socs’ idea of havinga good time is beating up Greasers like Ponyboy. Ponyboy knows what to expect and knows he can count on his brothers and friends – until the night someone takes things too far. A ground-breaking, timeless story from a brilliant writer.
S.E Hinton
THE OUTSIDERS – Th e o r i g i n a l t e e n a g e r e b e l s t o r y
U.K. £6.99
TheOutsiders_designaward_COVtemplate.indd 1
01/08/2013 10:49
s.e hinto n
‘. . . the hand at the back of my neck was strong. I’m drowning, I thought . . .’ The Socs’ idea of having a good time is beating up Greasers like Ponyboy. Ponyboy knows what to expect and knows he can count on his brothers and friends – until the night someone takes things too far. A ground-breaking, timeless story from a brilliant writer.
U.K. £6.99
T H E O UT S IDERS – Th e o r i g i n a l t e e n a g e r e b e l s t o r y
TheOutsiders_designaward_COVtemplate.indd 1
01/08/2013 10:49
result
This is the result of my work. Two book covers representing the idea of “blood is thicker than water� and the two gangs, socs and greasers, fighting each other. To achieve the final result I printed the drafts I had chosen, to see if the colours worked together on paper too, and not only on the screen. This lead to that I had to lighten up the grey background a bit to make the black text more visible. I also gave the concrete layer higher opacity so it became clearer that it actually existed. I think I have managed to achieve the simplicity that the book covers I have used as inspiration have. The result is maybe a bit startling because of the blood reference, but in the same time calm and pared down. The concrete gives the covers a bit of a rough feeling but the typography is very neat and tidy, which gives the covers a nice contrast. I hope that these covers would give both the teenager a desire to read the book, and the parents a desire to buy the book to their kids.
S.E Hinton
THE OUTSIDERS – Th e o r i g i n a l t e e n a g e r e b e l s t o r y
01/08/2013 10:49
s.e h i n to n
THE OUTSIDERS – Th e o r i g i n a l t e e n a g e r e b e l s t o r y
01/08/2013 10:49
s i r i esk i l so n gr a p hi c d esi g n an d i l l u st r at i o n UWS 2013