Graphic Design Breadth Assignment #7
Book Series Cover Design
Areas of focus: Unity, Balance, Variety, Emphasis, Contrast, Repetition, Figure/ground relationship
Goal: Create compelling covers for a book series where each one is unique, yet remains cohesive with all of the other books' designs.
Books can be part of a series (think Harry Potter). When a publication is part of a series or collection, it means the books (aka titles) have something in common. The titles may be related in the story they tell or the books may be covering subtopics of an overarching idea.
Procedure:
1. Read the following article. Click here --> Article You need to read the entire article since it's packed with great information about cover design.
2. Chose an existing series or collection (or make up your own) that has at least three book titles.
3. Create thumbnail sketches of your ideas. (Remember they must be original!) As you sketch, keep this assignment's areas of focus in mind.
4. You may use Adobe Photoshop to help you get the desired effects, but your final design will be in Illustrator. Open up Illustrator and create a document that matches the parameters of the "New Document" image on this webpage to begin your final design. ***Keep in mind that the number of artboards may change depending on how many covers you are creating. The minimum is 3. You can also adjust the width and height, but keep it close to 8.5" X 11".
You must go to this website and read the ENTIRE article before you begin. Take note that the article talks about book series cover designing toward the end of the reading, but you must read all of the article. Don't worry. There's big pictures to look at.
Keep your design flexible enough so you can apply it to each book's cover.
Use similar design elements for all covers in your series:
-imagery
-style
-type
-layout