Project: Conceptual Book Cover
This project is about designing three book covers for a classic novel that effectively communicates the author's core message or point-of-view behind the narrative while using the narrative's context and elements to connect the message to the story.
For the project I will be using 3 different methods:
Cover 01 – Type Only: Use only typography to create your book cover concept. This doesn't mean a standard font on a flat background; it means using typography in a clever and conceptual way to visualize the book's message.
Cover 02 – Physical Elements: Cover must be constructed from physical materials that can be assembled, collaged, photographed, or scanned for the final cover art.
Cover 03 – Designer’s Choice: Cover art can be developed in any style or format you choose.
All three books must be designed within the following specifications:
All covers should use a standard 6 in. x 9 in. cover size.
All three covers must be for the same book.
All covers must be printed or made to look real with the help of a Photoshop mockup.
All covers must contain the full title and the author’s full name, but no other text such as quotes or call-outs.
The size and shape of each cover can be unique so long as these design choices support the concept.
The book that I chose is "The grapes of wrath" by John Steinbeck.
I start with the "brainstorm" in this case I am thinking which objects I could include in my designs.
And now I make sketches to organize the initial ideas and create the base of my conceptual cover designs.
Next I recollect the resources that I could use in my designs.
Now it is time to design the conceptual book covers.
After some refinements I have the covers ready, and combining them with some mock-ups should be finished. I chose the covers that communicated the message better and reached the project instuctions more accurately, also testing some color and font variations.
Typography
I tried to use the simplicity, I considered to add some objects to the cover but I needed that the typography stand there as the main method of the book cover so I just added a background combined with colors in the word “grapes” and “wrath”. Here the wine bottle as background and the word "grapes" inside represent the grapes that become into wine instead of food for the starving people and the fire means wrath and at the same time it is adobe the "T" so it seems a torch representing the freedom. So even if I was not very creative at least I hope the message is clear.
Physical Elements
Here I used as objects: A wine bottle, circle grapes and a cannon to create something that represents wrath and grapes, the grapes are supposed to be cannon balls while the cannon is the bottle of wine which shoots those grapes to make destruction (If the grapes are used to make wine instead of feeding hungry people then that will raise wrath and wrath is destruction) I think and hope that the message is clear, the message should gain sense while reading the book.
Designer's Choice
Here my choice was to create a composition with a grape vineyard as the background to create some context of the novel and a bottle of wine that creates wrath while serving wine, here the fire represents wrath and as I mentioned before the wine are those grapes that were not used to feed starving people, imagine all that wrath of the hungry people. So with a design much more realistic I also try to represent one of the book’s genre “realism” I tried to put more weight in the wine being served by adding a black and white effect in the background and adjusting the levels of dark and light so the tittle of the book, the typography could be easier to read. I hold the color of the words “Grapes and wrath” because I liked that feature.
