Wednesday, January 7, 2009

GRD 3000 Project #3: Redesign a Book Cover




For this project, I needed to redesign a book cover. My choice was The Great Gatsby, and chose this book because I did not enjoy it in high school. I wanted to challenge myself of working on something that have not been my taste at first glance. As I continued sketching and pushing the look, I had fun with this project. Al Hirschfeld as an inspiration for the illustrations worked in my opinion, seeing the setting is in New York. And Hirschfeld is well known for being a famous New Yorker caricature artist. He did a lot of illustrations on celebrities and high living. He dealt with a lot of ink drawings for his pieces, which is why I decided to go a black and white color scheme.

For the first image was my original intent. However, a voice told me to try making the back cover black. I decided to do so, and I found that it was definitely better.





After the critique was over, and meeting with others on how to make this design better, I went back to the project to push it further. This image you see here is not the final image, it is still a work in progress. I got rid of the white box in the back cover, and I made the font white. I also made the same font smaller, and tried to put it in a good place between the two characters. I am still not satisfied, so glad that this is still a work in progress. The front cover, I made the title bigger, and I got rid of the "picture frame" that was on the back wall. I will replace it and put it in a different spot. That will come later.

If anyone has any suggestions or advice, I am welcome to those.

5 comments:

  1. This book cover is great. I know a lot of people thought it was one of the best ones out in the hallway when they were posted up at GSU. The illustrations and concept are great.

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  2. I have read the Great Gatsby, and I really enjoyed the book. I feel like you really captured the time period in your design. I am glad that you stuck with the black and white.

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  3. Thanks for the comments everyone! I truly appreciate it. Yeah, I wanted to stay in the black and white, I'm more used to that now more than anything. And with Al Hirschfeld as an influence, it worked great. I'm glad you all enjoyed the illustrations and the covers. Again, thanks for commenting.

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  4. I love the black and white aspect of your cover. Your illustrations are definitely your strong point. We read The Great Gatsby in class and I didn't really like it, but your cover would make me maybe want to give it another chance.

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