Book Covers

"Looking for Alaska" is one of my favorite books, although I read this 5 or 6 years ago, I remember the cover and my first impression where I thought it was going to be a boring book. However, when I look at the cover now, I think it's pretty interesting that the cover is very simple yet mysterious. There is a smoke, which doesn't necessarily take up the entire book, coming from a purple candle with a black background. I enjoy how there is a purple candle at the bottom of the cover, uniting the purple and the black creating this nice color math.

 

I first heard about this book when I took my graphic design class last summer. The other students in my class were praising the cover and saying how amazing it was. What I find nice about this cover is how there are two clouds on it, both different colors displaying the title of the book and the author. However, what I do not like about this is how there are texts above and below the clouds. I find them to be rather distracting, especially because it is all in upper - case, if it were in lower - case, maybe it would less distracting. Overall, I find this cover to be pretty attracting and is able to draw viewers in.

 

What I like about this cover is how it is so simple, yet interesting and very different from other covers I have seen. This cover is mostly white, except for the two pills in the cup which are blue and white. I find this to be so simple and makes the viewer interested with what the book is about. What I also like about this cover the title found at the bottom. I noticed that the letters are all in lower - case, which is not something I always see. I find this to be different and interesting on the designer's choice to make the title in all lower - case letters as well as flipping the 'e' in the word and having it in a different color. 

 

What stands out to me in this cover is how the person, Ross Matthews, is on the cover, leaning on pink balloons on a cloud in the sky. This caught my attention as the colors were blue and pink, my favorite, and the book appeared to be very bight and positive, making me feel happy. What I also enjoy is how the two balloons seen at the bottom have words written in it. Overall, I really enjoy this cover and looking at it makes me happy and eager to read about it. 

Although I haven't read this book, I am well aware what it is about. But, when I first saw this cover and was unaware of what the book is about, I found the cover to be interesting. I like how there is one color used, with different shades of 'grey' which really fit the title. However, the find the typeface used for this was a bit too simple and rather boring. I also feel that the cover is a bit bland, and could have used perhaps a bigger text size or more design on this cover as it there is a bit negative space. This is unlike "Looking for Alaska" and "Cracked" which are both simple, but is still has interesting components to it.

MHS Handbook Design

To create this design, I used the current student handbook to get an idea of how I should create my design. I also used designs from previous so I have more ideas. Before beginning my design, I created thumbnail sketches of a phoenix, played around with the wording, and drew some buildings as MHS is in New York. After creating these sketches, I moved on to a draft and a new idea came into my mind. So, I drew books of different subjects and stacked them on top of each other. Next, I wrote the words on the top and bottom of the book, so that the design wouldn't be that plain and boring to the viewer. I colored in the design, using mostly red as that is the color of our school. After creating this design, I felt it was bit too simple and boring and nothing really stood out from it. I decided to create a new design, but with some of the same elements in it. This time, I drew a book that was open to two pages and on the left side of the page I drew a phoenix, the school mascot, and on the right side I wrote in the information. I colored both sides of the pages using red, orange, and yellow trying to create this fire effect that the phoenix was rising out of.

The sketches I started with before creating my design

The first design I created, but I thought was a little to simple and boring, so I decided to change my design.

My second design, where I tried to be a bit more creative with my design, creating a new idea that hasn't been used yet and  adding this fire effect in the background to make the phoenix rise from the fire.