Book Cover Task
Requirements
- Design a book cover for a pre-existing novel using Illustrator and Photoshop- This book cover must have a relevant colour scheme- This book cover must also have appropriate use of Dingbats and Fonts (at least 3).- This book cover must convey the genre of the book, through its colours and fonts- No photographs may be used, but you must use the scanner to scan in at least one original
drawing.
Research
- Find 5 book covers that you like that don’t use photography as it’s main element (it can have a small bit of photography)
- List 10 books you think you would be able to create a suitable cover for- Brainstorm for 5 of these books what would suit them in terms of
- dingbats- font choice- colour scheme- think about who the book is aimed at - is it a children’s book? is it a horror novel? is it a biog-
raphy?- Of these 5, select which one you prefer and indicate it in the document somehow
- Compile these into a word document and save in your student folder to be printed later
Range of Ideas
- Complete trials of the hand-drawn element you will add to your cover. It might be:- the title- a drawing/painting of a face or object- the author’s name- the publishing company’s logo- a background
- Select your best hand-drawn element and scan it in and save it to your student file.- Create a new Illustrator document with the dimensions of 10cm x 15cm selected- Arrange at least 5 trial designs for your cover, looking at scale, position, rotation, warping the
text, adding drop shadows and glows, etc.- Each arrangement can have different fonts and dingbats.- Don’t forget to add your hand drawn element to experiment with where it can be placed.- Save each trial as a PDF in your folder- Select 3 colour palates from Design-Seeds.com that you think work with your novel cover. If you
cannot find any, you will need to create your own.
Range of Materials and Techniques
- After completing your 5 trial designs, select the trial that best suits your novel cover. - Open an A4 document and drop in the text and re-scale it so it fits the entire page.- Using your three colour palates, create at least three different colour trials based on your se-
lected final.- For each trial, use a different background. You might want to take it into Photoshop. You can try:
- a solid colour- a gradient- scanning something in that you’ve painted- scanning in a texture from the classroom
- Remember to consider what colours are in your colour palate, and the genre and content of your book.
- Of the three trials, select the one that works best and print it out to be your final piece.
Reflection
- Contribute in whole class critique and evaluation
- What setbacks did you come up against and how did you overcome them?
- What could you do to improve your design?
- Explain how you have used 2 elements and 2 principles
The Harry Potter Series by JK Rowling
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
The Fault In Our Stars by John Green
Snow White by The Brothers Grimm
The Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyer
The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot
The Hunger Games Series by Suzanne Collins
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams
The Princess Bride by William Goldman
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Series by Ann Brashares
Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Maze Runner by James Dashner
Charlotte’s Web by EB White
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Coraline by Neil Gaiman
Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
Divergent by Veronica Roth