Understand the Arts Community

The Studio Habit of Mind that will be explored in this unit is Understand the Arts Community.

To better understand the arts community and our place as artists within it, we must learn as much as we can about the artists, artworks, methods, processes, and history of art forms that interest us throughout the ages. By learning about them and analyzing the visuals and their meanings, we can be inspired to create our own work. To better understand the arts community we must also interact with our fellow artists. We have to be open to sharing our work, looking at the work of our peers, discussing and reflecting on it, and giving and taking constructive criticism and feedback.

Just as in all of the Studio Habits of Mind, the ability for an artist to connect to, and better understand the arts community takes repeated practice.

What is Book Cover Design?

Designing a book cover and entire dust jacket is a marriage of design and consumer awareness. A successful cover intrigues or entices a consumer to pick up the book and read it. It portrays the concept of the book with subtlety, but does not give too much away. It resonates with a reader from the imagery depicted, the style, and even the typography.

Book Dust Jacket

Project Specifics

For this project we will be creating the entire dust jacket cover for your favorite piece of literature as a reimagining. The cover you create must be a thoughtful interplay of a strong connection to the literary source, typography, imagery, and overall style.

Artistic Concept

A concept is an abstract idea. Artists use different concepts to take those ideas from abstraction to reality. The concept being explored through the lens of the Studio Habits - Understand the Arts Community is Symbolism and Metaphor.

Symbolism and Metaphor refers to an artist's use of visuals that stand for or mean something other than their literal definition. Artists have a goal or an idea that they want to communicate - this is called their intent. To communicate their intent they use widely accepted visual symbols in an artwork including objects, figures, and even colors. An artwork that is comprised of symbols and metaphors creates a theme - or big idea - that an artist is passionate about and wants to share with their viewers.

What are some different ways that graphic designers use symbolism and metaphor?

How are each of the designers of these book cover examples using symbolism and metaphor to communicate subtly about the concepts of the books?

Research

To better understand what makes a successful book dust jacket, you will be analyzing three covers from literary works you've previously read that you think are appealing and have a strong connection to the source material.

What Makes A Great Cover ?

Elements of Art & Design

The elements and principles of art and design are the foundation on which all art is created. They can be thought of like a sentence. There has to be words in order to make a sentence; no words, no sentence. The elements of art are like the words. Without the elements - line, shape, color, value, texture, space, and form - there is no art. That doesn't mean that all elements of art must be used in an individual artwork, just like not every word has to be used in a sentence, but at least one must be present.

Understand the Arts Community will focus on the following element of art & design:

Element of Art & Design

Learn some interesting aspects about the element of art & design: color

Why is it so very important for graphic designers to have a strong grasp of color?

In what creative ways are these book covers using color to entice the viewer to pick up the book?

Principles of Art & Design

If we think of the elements and principles of art & design like a sentence, with the words being a metaphor for the elements, then the principles of art & design are the ways in which the words are arranged. The way in which you arrange the words of a sentence dictates the feel and meaning of it. More descriptive words, and the sentence gives more detail; less words, and the sentence reads sharp or abrupt. The principles of art and design are the way in which an artwork is arranged. Does it appear uneasy, or relaxed? Without the principles of design - pattern and repetition, contrast, movement, emphasis, balance, rhythm, and unity - an artwork would not have a unique look and personality to it. The principles of art and design are more subjective as well. This means that they can be viewed and interpreted by one person differently than they are viewed and interpreted by another.

Understand the Arts Community will focus on the following principle of art & design:

Principle of Art & Design

Learn different ways to create balance in an artwork.

Why is it important for a graphic designer to know how to create balance in their work?

How are each of the designers of these book cover examples using the elements of art & design to create balance in the covers?

Composition

Composition refers to the arrangement of the elements of art & design according to the principles of art & design in any given artwork.

Composition is the key to creating a strong, aesthetically pleasing artwork in any medium.

instructor example

Artistic Conventions

A convention is an accepted way in which something is done. It's a variety of things that artists do to create a piece of artwork. Artists use their knowledge of the numerous different artistic conventions with corresponding methods and techniques to portray meaning in an artwork.

Each Studio Habit of Mind will explore different artistic conventions. In this example, the artist is using the artistic conventions that this unit will explore - composition, negative space, and the use of images.

Composition

This convention refers to the artist's skilled placement of the elements of art & design used in their piece according to the principles of art & design. For example, are the colors, lines, and shapes, arranged in such a way that there is balance and unity in the piece all while leading the viewers eye throughout the artwork in a pre-determined manner set out by the artist?

Negative Space

This convention refers to the artist's use of the empty space in an artwork. The empty space is just as important as the filled space and should be very carefully considered when constructing an artwork. It is an important tool to help lead the viewer's eye around the composition.

Images

This conventions refers to the artist's use of imagery in an artwork. This could be hand-made or properly sourced from existing images found on the internet. Either way, an artist must be very conscious of how imagery is used in an artwork and be aware of the hidden symbolism and metaphor that is created through the images in the piece.

Create a Template

Using an old, existing book, take precise measurements of its dimensions. Use these dimensions to construct a template that is laid out like the example given. The order of the parts of a dust jacket are as follows: inside back flap; back cover; spine, front cover, inside front flap.

Sketch it out!

Using your paper template, create a series of thumbnail sketches that explore your reimagined book dust jacket and consider all of the previous learning on composition, the elements and principles of design, the artistic conventions explored, and just what it takes to create a strong book cover.

Revise and Enlarge your Sketch!

Using constructive feedback from your peers and instructor, revise your best thumbnail sketch to show improvement. Once that is complete, draw your design at full scale size on the accurately proportioned template you created earlier with as much detail as possible. We will be using this as a base layer in either Photoshop or Illustrator to create our digital work.

InDesign Tutorial

For this project we will be building the assets in two different programs. You will be using your choice of Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator to construct all of the design work including digital painting or image manipulation. Once this is complete, you will be using Adobe InDesign to layout the dust jacket template and to organize the different parts.

Learn the basics of InDesign here.

Graphic Designer You Should Know

Chip Kidd

A collection of book cover designs by Chip Kidd.

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