(B5) Penguin Book Cover: Final Designs

 Thinking about what my peers said in previous crits:
- Simplifying the text, this was the key point mentioned in by all peers I spoke to about the cover.
- I agreed, I liked the justified text but felt it was a contrast with the organic paper scrunch was too contrasting. The difference in word length within the text meant it was difficult to read.

Rethinking, could make text smaller? Also could do with choosing a different typeface that looks less childish and more professional but still with an approachable visual anatomy. 

- Too much separation between the elements they don't work together but contrast each other. 

- The typeface as well is too similar to the original cover, I'd love to use a more contemporary appearing typeface to show the problems discussed in the book and that they're current, not something of the past. 

 - Changing the paper scrunch to play with different compositions. 

- The weighting of this image is unevenly distributed, making it difficult for the book to feel balanced. 

- This layout (A) is getting there, it's much more balanced.

- This typeface is much more successful, it captured the tone of the book while remaining more contemporary. 

- A Sans serif typeface fits with the theme of data and stats as these are often digital and will exist in sans type. 

- Varying weight to display a hierarchy within the components.

- Think these elements with the layout of image A will be the most successful and final cover. 

Final Cover:

- Adjustments made the the back page by aligning the text centrally and changing the typeface to match the cover.

The final cover brings together the themes of hidden/discarded data through the motif of a scrunched piece of graph paper. This is inspired by how Wallace-Wells talks about their work in interviews as well as the content of the book. The overall appearance is enticing as the cover alludes to something more without giving too much away creating a sense of intrigue for the audience. The blue and orange colour palette is inspired by graph paper and through the application creates a contemporary aesthetic for the publication.  

Reflection on brief:

I found my time management on this project to be a little lacking, more because of my self control. I wasn't happy with the original work and so tried several attempts and wouldn't stop working. This mean I over ran on the project a little, however the outcome I've gotten to now is one I really like and think is a strong book cover.
- I need to work on being more decisive earlier on. 
- It was easier to make decisions after hearing people's feedback. Bear this in mind when moving forward on projects and keep talking to people from the start to encourage a productive work flow. 

I'm happy with the final outcome, I struggle with book covers as I prefer a much more minimal design but I feel it was appropriate for this book since the content is largely about stats, figures etc that develop emotion and I feel the cover I've made represents this.

The cover design fits with Penguin's current publications without looking too similar, it matches their style and I think is a strong response to the brief.
- I researched into Penguin, watching videos, listening to how they talk about book cover design. Then took this into account when designing the book cover.

Overall I enjoyed this project more than I thought.