PENGUIN BRIEF

What the judges are looking for

We are looking for a striking cover design that is well executed, has an imaginative concept and clearly places the book for its market. While all elements of the jacket need to work together as a cohesive whole, remember that the front cover must be effective on its own and be eye-catching within a crowded bookshop setting. It also needs to be able to work on screen for digital retailers such as Amazon.

The winning design will need to:

• have an imaginative concept and original interpretation of the brief
• be competently executed with strong use of typography
• appeal to a contemporary readership
• show a good understanding of the marketplace
• have a point of difference from the many other book covers it is competing against

In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee addresses many controversial issues. Such issues as, racism, discrimination, and social class are explored. During the 1930’s in the small county of Maycomb, the mentality of most southern people reflected that of the nation. Most of the people were racist and discriminatory. In the novel, these ideas are explored by a young girl, Scout.

The most important theme of To Kill a Mockingbird is the book’s exploration of the moral nature of human beings—that is, whether people are essentially good or essentially evil. The novel approaches this question by dramatizing Scout and Jem’s transition from a perspective of childhood innocence, in which they assume that people are good because they have never seen evil, to a more adult perspective, in which they have confronted evil and must incorporate it into their understanding of the world. As a result of this portrayal of the transition from innocence to experience, one of the book’s important subthemes involves the threat that hatred, prejudice, and ignorance pose to the innocent: people such as Tom Robinson and Boo Radley are not prepared for the evil that they encounter, and, as a result, they are destroyed. Even Jem is victimized to an extent by his discovery of the evil of racism during and after the trial. Whereas Scout is able to maintain her basic faith in human nature despite Tom’s conviction, Jem’s faith in justice and in humanity is badly damaged, and he retreats into a state of disillusionment.

Everywhere you turn, another designer is releasing a project featuring a minimalist design style. This focus on space, simplicity and beautiful typography is refreshing. And it’s a great option for a number of design projects. That might be one of the reasons minimalist design is so popular.

Elements such as color and typography are also used with an emphasis on simplicity with extremely pared down palettes that may include only one hue or typeface. Details and space are design factors that really rule the aesthetic. Because there are not a lot of elements to work with, every design divot is on display.

Minimalism is about a return to the basics of contrast, space, organization, color, dominant visual and typography.

• Contrast: Black and white schemes are popular because they innately contain a lot of contrast between elements. But any high-level contrast works. Use yin and yang concepts to pair elements with opposing forces – large and small text or images, open space and a single element, other colors with plenty of contrast, stark design with an elaborate typeface.
• Space: Minimalism is built on space, and while you don’t have to include massive amounts of white space, element breathability is a must. Each piece in the design puzzle must have room to stand on its own in the design. Minimal outlines seldom feel cramped and work.
• Organization: Please use a grid. Go back to some of the roots of minimalism and the use of lines and rectangles. Even those lines we can see impact how users feel about the design. A grid will keep you organized and your design feeling harmonious.
• Color: Contrast and color are often lumped together in discussions about minimalist design, but are separate visuals. Color can create contrast, and it is an important part of the planning process. Too many designers trying to go minimal overuse color or think that minimal has to be black and white. The palette should be streamlined; rather than the two- to four- colors from a traditional color scheme, try to stick to a single hue in a light and/or dark framework.
• Dominant visual: Don’t get caught in the too many visuals trap. Pick one thing and make it dominant (note dominant, not necessarily large). Dominance links directly to contrast to uses the techniques in concert. Suggestions for dominant visuals include an image, block of text or element with surprising color.
• Typography: The common usage in most minimalist frameworks is sans serif typography and that’s a great option. Go with a typeface that has clean lines and simple strokes. Bold or thin typefaces are usable, depending on the message you want to convey. If you are using type as the dominant element, consider a typeface with more flourish or personality for contrast.

EXPERIMENTATION CAN BE VIEWED AT THE BOTTOM

Experimentation was a big part of this brief. My normal method of producing an idea is to just continue research and designing concepts until an idea strikes. 

Before I got started on creating a cover design, I needed to decide on the message I want to send.

The themes I was experimenting with were:

- the battle between good and evil

- perspective of childhood innocence

- the threat that hatred, prejudice, and ignorance pose to the innocent

- the racist views of it’s time

These are the main ideas that the story focuses on and I thought these ideas needed to be transformed into a visual concept for the front cover. You can see my level of experimentation further down.

I developed a lot of ideas this was a problem I was having as I was not satisfied with the designs and kept creating new concepts until I found one to further develop. So I continued this process until I found a design I was satisfied with.