OUGD504 / STUDIO BRIEF 03 / INITIAL COVER EXPERIMENTS

In order to grab the audience's attention, the cover of a book does matter and must be eye catching and well designed. Imagery used is extremely crucial to the overall aesthetic of the publication and definitely sets the tone for the rest of the content.  It should be consistent and fit a sustained theme throughout. 

The images I captured in Poland were not solely type, for a personal project I wanted to capture images of the religious locations throughout Krakow, as religion is evidently a very significant aspect to the community. Everywhere you go there is multiple chapels and holy locations to be seen. An image like this would be suitable for the front cover however there is the argument that the image should contain type as that is the topic of the publication. 

Whilst experimenting, the title of the publication was not definite, rather just an appropriate text to work with for this stage.

The first idea generated was the above 3. Using the same imagery taken from Poland's holy locations, but edited into fluorescent IK Blue. Problems with these compositions include not printing correctly as they use RGB colour inks. They could be reimagined in less vibrant colours that can be correctly printed in CMYK. These layouts are actively created to be contemporary, using geometric shapes with thick stroke weights, or solid colour.

Experimenting with text alignment created a lot of options and ways to fill out the page, instead of just placing one text box horizontally. 

Also trying these variants using the same images, I simply experimented with colour and overlapping contemporary shape. For the middle image, through use of kerning, I made sure the i and the l were aligned horizontally down the cross.

Here I have utilised the same overlapping rectangles, however one side is obstructing the Virgin Mary. These shapes are geometric, contrasting with the detailed imagery and the solid colour really pops out. On the third image, I feel the type is too spaced out and does not look as effective as the prior examples.