Evaluation of unit 2

Final piece

I started off by copying my draft on two pieces of A4 paper stuck together. I also experimented a bit by using my 'Twiggy type' on the branches but I thought that it was too much so decided to stick to the original.

After copying my draft, I decided to make some adjustments and add things to my design.

I thought that my front cover looked quite bare so I added some drawings of dragonflies to have as a focal point.

I then added some bulrushes to the front, back and flaps of my design. I also drew some more clouds onto my flaps to add repetition to my book cover.

After I was happy with my drawing, I scanned it into photoshop. I then flipped the image so it would print out backwards, my reason for doing this was so when I cut it out and flipped it over, you wouldn't be able to see any of my drawing marks which would make my work look untidy. After doing that, adjusted the threshold so the drawing was just black and white.

I then started to cut my drawing out.

From experience of cutting for my copy and emulation I made sure that my design wasn't as delicate as my copy so I wouldn't find it too difficult to cut and accidentally tear pieces.

The hardest part to cut was the bulrushes but I made sure I was careful and didn't tear anything accidentally.

I also took great care with the lettering as that was what I found most difficult when I cut my copy, because I'd designed the text to be quite on my design it wasn't too difficult.

Here is an image of the clouds and the bulrushes that I added to the flaps of my book cover.

Here is what my design looked like after I had finished cutting. I then placed it on top of black card and scanned it into Photoshop.

I adjusted the threshold so it was simply just black and white and then I deleted the black background.

As I had to scan the front and back separately, I put them together as they would be if it was a real book cover and added a light green background.

I wanted to make the effect that the white part of my design was lifted of the page so added a drop shadow.

I then started to add text to my design.

This is the point I got to when I decided I needed to make some adjustments.

I printed my book cover off and highlighted all the points I needed to change, I then made these adjustments on my design on Photoshop.

I added a dropped cap to the text on the blurb, this gave my text more contrast and made it look more interesting.

Using the pen tool, I then made the text on the front flap fit in with the shape of the design, this made it look better than just being a rectangular shape.

I moved the institutional information from the back flap to the back cover as I felt it was out of place on the flap and looked a lot better on the back cover.

I also added a 5px white stroke around the image of Kenneth Grahame to make the picture stand out more and to add contrast between the dark photograph.

I added the authors name to the front of my cover as I felt it was important to have his name somewhere on the front.

I also added an endorsement as I felt it was lacking information on the back cover and so many book covers include an endorsement. I then changed the opacity to 40% as it looked too bold at 100% (which was black).

I thought that the spine spine looked really bad and cluttered so I also made an alteration to this.

I changed the size of the text so it was a lot smaller and fit well with the design. I also made the title of the book and the authors name a lot more contrasting in size.

Here is my final piece:

Final draft

Digital type choices

Colour schemes

Using this draft, I scanned it into photoshop and adjusted the threshold. This made the image pure black and white.


Monochromatic colour scheme

I then started to colour individual bits to my design.

Here is the end result. Within this monochromatic example I have used the colour green. I chose this colour to have relevance to my book as it is based by the riverbank and the woodlands. I think this colour scheme works really well, this is because my final design is going to be a cut out so very little colours will be used in my final piece but I will definitely be using the colour green.

Complementary colour scheme

I wanted to include the colour green within all my colour schemes because it is the colour that I believe has most relevance to my subject matter. Green and red are complementary colours so I decided to use these two colours for the complementary colour scheme. I used a mixture of warm and cool reds and also a mixture of warm and cool greens to balance it out. Overall I think that this colour scheme looked good apart from the red didn't have a big relevance to my subject matter.

Analogous colour scheme

For my analogous colour scheme I decided to use the colours green, blue and yellow. I thought these where a good choice of colour as they all have relevance to my subject matter. The yellow could represent the sun or bright yellow flowers, the blue represents the water in the rivers and pond and rain. And the green represents all the greenery you find in a woodland. However, I do think that three colours are too much for my design as I just want one simple colour used in my final piece.

Triadic colour scheme

The colours I used for my triadic colour scheme were green, yellow and orange. I thought these colours together looked awful and made my design look terrible. I would definitely not use this in my final piece because all the colours clash, and it isn't very easy on the eye.

Written analysis of Candyfloss by Jacqueline Wilson

Written analysis of A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket

Contrast, repetition, alignment and proximity analysis of A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket

This is another book that I looked at whilst doing my research..

A Series of Unfortunated Events:

Front cover

 The first thing that I chose to label was contrast. Number one shows the contrast between the bright yellow title and the dull black background. I labelled number two because of the contrast in the size of text. The authors name is a lot smaller than the book title which was different to what the design was on Candyfloss. Candyfloss had similar size text for the author and book title. Number three highlights the constrast between the red background and the black background. The red stands out quite a lot and adds variation as it would be very dull to have just black for the background. I labelled number four because of the bright orange/yellow background which is very eye-catching compared to the dark colour of the boys hair. Finally, I labelled number 5 because of the difference in colour of the two pieces of text, the contrast in size and the contrast in typefaces. 'BOOK THE SEVENTH' is in a serif typeface and 'The Vile Village' is in a script typeface.

 Next, I labelled proximity. All the pieces of text that are in close proximity should be read together. As you can see I have highlighted all the different pieces of text that are in close proximity and that your eyes would naturally 
read together.

I then labelled repetition. Number one shows the repetition of the colour yellow, this makes the colour scheme quite warm.
Number two shows the repetition of the dark browns and blacks that are used. This makes the colours such as: red, yellow and blue stand out a lot more. Number highlights the repetition of the colour red which is a bold colour.
Finally, number four shows the repetition of the blue/green colour which complements the red.

Finally, I labelled alignment. Numbers one and two show the alignment of the book title. Numbers three and four are the alignment of the illustration and the text 'A Vile Village'. Numbers five and six show the alignment of the authors name. Number seven is the centre alignment which goes straight through the middle of the illustration.






















Back cover

The first thing that I labelled on the back cover was alignment. Numbers one and two highlight the alignment of the blurb text which shows that it is also in line with the right side of the barcode. Number three is the centre alignment which goes straight down the middle of the blurb and authors name. Numbers four and five labelled because they show the alignment of the top and bottom of the blurb.

Next I labelled contrast. Number one highlights the contrast between the dark black background and the red spine. Number two also shows a contrast in colour however this time it is between the black and yellow. Number four shows the contrast between the mixture of upper case and lower case text and the all upper case text. It also shows the contrast of the two different typefaces, however, they are similar in some ways because they are both serif fonts. Finally, number five shows the contrast between the serif text and the script text. This adds interest on the back cover and make it contrasting instead of being all concording.

I then looked at proximity. All the pieces of text that are in close proximity should be read together. As you can see I have highlighted all the different pieces of text that are in close proximity and that your eyes would naturally 
read together.

Finally I looked at repetition. Number one shows the repetition of the serif typeface and number two shows the repetition of the colour black. There is also repetition of the colour red (spine and text at the bottom).

Spine

First I looked at proximity. It is simple to see what is in close proximity on a spine so I just labelled everything in close proximity so what should be read together.

Then I looked at alignment. The centre line goes through every single piece of text so the designer has thought carefully about this and was working on a grid.

I then looked at repetition. Here there is repetition of the colours yellow and the orange/red.

Finally I looked at contrast. I labelled the contrasts between the red text and the yellow text and also the fact that the contrast with the background. Also, the black text at the bottom of the spine contrast with the coloured text and the red background.