Unit 4 Evaluation

Final Piece

This is my final book cover design. I really like how the type sits over the painting on the back of the book. I feel like it adds depth to the cover, and makes it really aesthetically pleasing.
I think if I was to do this project again, I'd probably experiment more with colour schemes and composition.
Though I like that the dark colours set the mood for the book, I think that maybe the design may benefit from the introduction of colours.
My only concern would be that the abundance of colours would clash with the painting, and so take away from the illustration.
Over all, I am very happy with the out come of this project. I think it fulfils the brief I had set, and is over all a successful design.

Final Piece : Back process

I started off by drawing a box shape with the pen tool so that I could alter where the text would wrap around the portrait.
I wrote a brief summary of the story for the blurb, and even included a 'review' from a newspaper.

I thought having the review at the top of the blurb would work well, but I think it made it look messy/cluttered. To fix this I moved it to the bottom. This made the design look more efficient and streamline, and so made the product look more high end.

I decided that I didn't like how the text sat at the side of the back cover, and made the design look messy. Instead, I lowered the luminosity of the face so that it faded into the darkness and overlaid the text so that it rested on top of it. This added depth into the cover and I think  that made it look a lot more high end and better quality.
It was a huge improvement, but there was still something that I didn't like about it. It wasn't until I changed the alignment that I realised what it was. I feel like the left alignment of the text made it look quite rigid and formal. I changed the text to a centre alignment which was much more streamline and successful.

After changing the alignment of the text, I then proceeded to add features/conventions such as barcodes and logos. I used two types of barcodes (Interleaved 2 of 5, and QR Code), and included the logo of the publishing company on both the spine and back.

For the book folds, I decided to include a short biography of the author (Tim Burton) and a photo. I really like the affect of having the photo included in the back of the book. It gives the book a much more personal feeling, I think. One of the elements I like about this is the starting letter being in the same script type as the cover, and being a larger size. It looks a lot more aesthetically pleasing and interesting than if I were to keep the text all the same type.
I also included information of the publishing company, as I feel that it gives it a formal edge but remains relevant to the page topic.

This is how the back looks with the front cover. I am very happy with the outcome as I feel it has a really nice balance and contrast. I feel that the different elements of the design work nicely together and compliment each other, bringing the out the best.

Final Piece : Front cover process

I started off using the left half of the portrait I had painted. I thought it looked more worn and 'dead', and so would make for a better cover. However, I then thought that it'd be difficult to connect both the back and the front if the portrait was to end abruptly.
To solve this, I then moved it so that the right side was resting on the front cover, and the left side on the back cover.

After swapping the sides over, I then duplicated the portrait so that I could drag the face out wider. Even though it makes it look misshapen on the plan, when printed out and folded into shape, it will work better as there's an equal amount of face on both sides.

Originally I had designed it so that the title of the book rested on the bottom of the cover. However, I felt that it made the white space ineffective and unsuccessful. It made the cover look still and boring.
To adjust this, I rearranged the type positioning.

This is how it looked after I had repositioned the text. I much preferred it in this position, but I thought that the white contrasted too much with the black, and took focus away from the portrait.
To counterbalance this, I colour selected a muted colour from the veil, so that it still contrasted with the black, but wasn't so bright that it took away from the main illustration.

This is how the front cover looked after adjusting the colour of the type. I feel that it is much nicer on the eyes, and makes the the typeface easier to read.
I also think that the composition is much more successful than how it was before hand.

Final Portrait Process

I started off with a basic sketch of the portrait that I wanted to do. I did it on a background with low luminosity, as this allowed for clearer painting, and made it easier to judge colour differences in tone.

I then painted under the sketch in a monochromatic style so that I could get a better idea of what tones would fall where. It also gave a base for shape and gave me more confidence to work over than if I were to try with the oil paint brush tool immediately.

On a layer above, I started to apply paint using the oil brush tool, blending and altering the colour as I went. This was so I could really get the right shapes of the face.

I duplicated the layer with the painted face, and flipped it so that it was the opposite side of the face. I then proceeded to add details like teeth and eyes, making slight differences between the two sides to avoid an overly symmetrical look, as this would look highly unnatural, and too ‘perfect’

I really like how this technique worked out, as I don’t think I would of been able to achieve such a range in tone from the colours without first painting monochromatically under the sketch. I think that it is a very successful technique, and it is one I will definitely be using in the future.

Final Cover Layout Trials

These are rough cover arrangements that I trialed after completing the cover illustration.
So far my favourite of all the designs is the final one, as I feel that the darker back ground makes the book seem a little too illustrated, and so may appeal to a younger audience, which is not in correlation to my brief.
I will use a hand drawn font to use as type on my cover. I will also include any company logos that I feel necessary,
I might make the illustration a bit more subtle, so that it's like you're seeing the character through a mist-like screen. This might also make the book look higher end, and so appeal to an older audience.

Final Cover Scamping

These were the initial scamps that started the final development of my final cover design, I wanted to digitally paint an illustration of the main character, and include references to the book.
I started off with a very rough sketch of a basic pose I wanted on the cover, and then I developed it into a more detailed scamp. Under the scamp, I did a very rough monotone painting, so that I could get a rough idea of shape, so that I may later work into it.
I think I will make some minor changes to the pose and expression so that the character is given more 'life'. I will also change the petal-like fragments that come from her (as seen below) into moths, as they are more book accurate.

I started off with a monochrome digital painting of the character, so that I can set a top layer to 'Overlay', and make colour adjustments on a 'multiply' layer. This allowed the colour to be transparent and sit over the monochromatic painting. This gives the darker colours a less saturated look.
Next time I will probably try and paint her using the oil brush tool, and working in a low saturated colour palette, as opposed to a monochromatic, 

Typeface brainstorm

This is the start of my brainstorming for type ideas for my book cover. After looking at different script types and how the words intertwine with each other, I have decided that I would really like something like this for my book title as it looks mature and professional.
I would also like to have a type that could be relevant to the book itself, I think I will achieve this by having it in a Victorian style, as the novel itself is set in the Victorian era.
Not only does having a typeface such as this make the product appear more high end, I also feel that it makes it more attractive to an older audience, which coincides with my initial brief and is over all successful.

Artist Emulation

After producing this artist copy, I decided that I wanted to emulate it also. I decided to recreate another portrait in a similar style using the same technique as I had done to copy it. As I wanted the emulation to be relevant to my product, I decided that I would do a digital portrait of the Corpse Bride. I thought I would combine elements of the two, resulting in Tim Burton's design of Emily (the Corpse Bride) in the style of WojtekFus. 

I started off by sketching out the basic colours of the main portrait. I did this over a layer with the original sketch. The only thing that I don't like about the colour scheme is that there isn't much contrast, as all the tones are similar, just altered in saturation and luminosity. I think that this piece would benefit from some warmer tones to contrast with the cool shades of blue.

This is how it looked after I had blended the colours and altered the tone slightly with some hints of warmer colours. To alter the tone, I created an over lay layer, set it to a low opacity and worked some colours on top. After I had achieved my desired affect, I merged it with the layer below so that it was on the same layer as the digital painting. This way I could blend it in with the other colours using an oil brush set to a low paint intensity.

After blending the colours, I decided to add a basic background as a base. That way, I know what I was working with and what colours would look the most successful. In the end I decided to use oranges and yellows as they are the complimentary colours to blue and purple. 

I added her hair and the basic positioning of the flowers so that I could get a greater idea of colour and positioning of shapes.

I decided that the orange was too top heavy, and made the piece slightly unbalanced. To counter this I decided to add orange fragments to the bottom of the piece.
To get other fragments through out the piece, I merged all of the layers and duplicated it. With the duplicate copy, I then put a glass blur filter over it. Using a line selection tool, I then selected fragment-like pieces of the layer that I wanted to keep, and then inverted the selection (ctrl + shift + i) and removed the excess.

I added some glowing pieces to the final design. I wanted to tie in the theme of the moths/dissolving of Emily, so I set a glow over a large portion of the side, and had pieces of her design glow and fragment away.

Over all I am pretty happy with this emulation, however I Think that it could be improved by using an original design for Emily.
I will definitely look into designing a new look for her, as I am not keen on using Tim Burton's famous design in my product.

Artist Copy

This is the artists copy that I have produced of WojtekFus' digital portrait.  What I really love about this is the contrast between the crisp details off the face, and the out of focus expressionist background details. The bold brush strokes and vivid colours really add a feeling of movement and give motion to the piece. Here is the process I went through in order to create this artist copy.

I started off by drawing a rough sketch of the piece from observation. This was pretty simple as I used a large canvas, and was able to place both images side by side, comparing proportions and shape.

I lowed the luminosity of the background, as this allows me to have better judgement of tone withing the skin colour, as when it is too light it's difficult to form a realistic judgement of highlights and shadows.

Here is what it looked like after I had finished placing the rough colours. To do this I used the oil brush on a high opacity, with strong colour settings. This meant that any colour I applied would be more opaque and wouldn't immediately blend with the colours around it.

This is how it looked after I had blended the colours using a mixture of a water smudge tool, and the oil brush set to a lower paint density. To further progress the piece, I added a basic layout of colours and lines to get an idea of where what details would fall.

I further developed the background and hair by adding shape and more brush strokes into it. I also added more details into the face and added the 'warpaint'. It was here that I noticed that the tone of the skin was slightly off and would benefit from some colour adjustment. 

This is how the piece looked after altering the final colours. I did this on an overlay layer set to a low opacity. This allowed me to alter the warmth of the skin tones, but also keep the intensity minimal.
I also increased the glow of the back-light, and brought it further onto the model's cheek.
I think that the final stage really  brought the piece to the next level as it made it just that extra bit more accurate.

If I were to redo this artist copy, I think I would create more texture brushes, as I felt limited in terms of texture and brush strokes. Over all, I am pretty happy with the out come of my copy.

Layout development

These are some scamps so that I could experiment with the layout of my book cover, and what would reside on the cover.
I brainstormed initial ideas, and then narrowed them down to three main ideas.
Over all, ideas one and two are my most favourite, and I think that I will combine ideas from the both of them when it comes to designing my final product.
I want my cover to be quite pragmatic, so I may look into digital portraits and designs for Emily, as I am reluctant to use the same design as Tim Burton, as this will have too much connection to the motion picture, and so make my book seem like it's aimed towards a younger audience, and so break away from my initial brief.

I like the thought of having a continued illustration on both the front and back cover design, as I feel it makes the book's design more fluent and less rigid.
I would like to have the title at the top of the book, however if I explore portraits as my final design, having a top positioned title will create unsuccessful blank space, giving the book an unbalanced look.

I think when it comes to the blurb, I will experiment with alignment and layering.
I feel that a left alignment looks too rigid, and having a right alignment shaped around the back illustration may lower the legibility.
I might try and layer it so that the text over lays the image, however if I do this I will have to ensure that the background image doesn't contrast too much with the text, as that may make it more difficult to read.

When designing my cover, I must also take into account placement of institutional information, as they need to be clearly legible, and stand out from the rest of the design.
I might include information about things such as the publishing company, a short biography, and email addresses on the flaps of the dust jacket.

Drawings of subject matter

Here I have sketched out some ideas for subject matter. I started out with the original Tim Burton designs, so that I could annotate around them and use them as a starting point.

I am going to be avoiding using Emily (the corpse bride) on the front cover, as I want my book to have a more poetic quality and look more high-end.
To achieve this, I think I'll be using subtle hints of the story but in a different form than the obvious. To do this, I think I will incorporate the use of moths as they are an iconic symbol used in the film to represent freedom and release.
I played around with the idea of having a face on the wings, or maybe even each wing being a different face.
Emily as a corpse and alive, perhaps.

Scamps of others

Here I have completed 12 thumbnail scamps of other's book cover designs. I have ranged the style, composition and genre of covers I scamped as so to avoid being too heavily influenced by another designer's style.
I like the use of negative shapes. For example, the cover of The Lord Of The Rings, The Two Towers. I think it's really clever how they have incorporated the hand and the ring in the design.
I experiment with a similar idea when I come to designing my cover.

Book Research

Follow Nonnie Owen's board Book Covers on Pinterest.

After receiving the brief of designing a book cover, I decided to research other book covers. I like how the covers range from being literal to poetic.
Because I didn't want to be too strongly influenced by a single type of book design, I decided to research many types and themes of cover designs.

Brief

After his latest film release "Big Eyes", Tim Burton is wanting to bring back one of his his classic films in book form, as well as appeal to a more adult audience. It is your brief to design a book covers that will let adults know it's aimed at an older audience through the medium of illustration and cover design.
The classics Tim Burton is wanting to reproduce is "The Corpse Bride".
While designing this product, it's important to take these issues into consideration.

Audience - The books must be obviously designed for a more adult audience but keeping sensitivity in mind.

Sensitivity - The books are of dark nature, however it's important to keep in mind sensitivity- so things like excessive gore need to be kept to an absolute minimum.

Aesthetics - The covers should be aesthetically pleasing in terms of layout, and should be able to draw in an audience without over crowding the page with illustrations.As the books will be part of a series, it is important there is a common theme to link them together.

Flaws, perfection, ideals, or compromises.

Follow Nonnie Owen's board Flaws, perfection, ideals or compromises on Pinterest.

After being given the prompt "Flaws, perfection, ideals, or compromises", I wanted to further explore what I could apply this prompt to.
Here is my research and exploration into flaws and perfections.
My ideas range from potential skincare products, to movie related merchandise.
After exploring different ideas of flaws and perfections, I discovered that many of Tim Burton's creations all share a common theme of a flawed character.
I was interested to look further into this, and perhaps develop book covers for his movie titles, such as "Edward Scissor Hands", and "The Corpse Bride".
It would be interesting to see how I can portray these stories in a poetic way in terms of book cover design.