Assignment 2: A Photographic Book Cover

For this assignment, we had to:
" Create a design for a book jacket (which wraps around and includes front cover, spine and back cover) for a work of fiction, using your own photography . The main photograph should be one that you've shot specifically for this project. Approach this assignment as one facing a professional photographer, to be completed to the same professional standards that you see in book publishing. The assignment focuses on fiction rather than non-fiction, so that you have the opportunity to conceptualise rather than choose a literal image."

First we had to choose one of the books they listed. At first, none looked too inspiring. I chose Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury first, but then decided that all the images I could think of were too literal and I wanted to find something more challenging. I settled on The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. I also needed a book that I could do a shoot for in Borneo and this one seemed to be one that fit this criteria. Also, it was one of the books I had access to.

As I read the book, I came up with ideas involving butlers, cutlery layouts, buildings from the colonial period (as this is possible in Borneo), old cars and relics from the post war period. I did an initial shoot at the tea gardens in Sandakan, of cream teas, considered the staff (who dress like old-fashioned butlers and maids), the cutlery as it was laid out, and some old relics like an iron and telephone they have there. I also took a few of the building as this was representative of the period. I looked at other versions of the cover, and eliminated a few ideas such as the cutlery idea as they have already been done, as has taking a photo of a butler or car, they are too literal also.

I settled on 2 ideas for the photograph for the cover. I wanted initially to use an image and cut it out and place it on a background, but decided to also shoot images where the typography could be placed over the image. I went back and experimented with these ideas, and settled on a few shots to try out. I also decided that I wanted to turn the image into a black and white or sepia image, as I feel this represents the time period more accurately. I experimented with a few effects in lightroom, using the black and white presets. The one I used in the cover was a toned preset called 'antique.'

The images I shot were of the tea house and grounds with sky in them, and then of relics I found there and a cream tea as this also represents the period, something a butler may serve his master. One issue I had is that I shot the photos of the building in landscape automatically, even though I was aware that I may need to use it in protrait orientation, but decided that it gave me more to crop and more choice of which part of the image to use when I resized it. Another problem I had was that my initial idea involved using a whole image and wrap it around, but I was unable to lighten it enough to take the text for the back cover, and so I chose then to use the image on the front cover only. I also tried one cover where the image was placed without the text over it.

I looked up the Faber and Faber image on google images, and needed both the black and white ones for different formats.

I created the ISBN by putting on of the edition's ISBN's into google and searching through images.

This was the image after processing in lightroom 4 using the black and white toned antique preset.

The original image.



For deciding the cover size, I looked up the formats that the book has already been published in, at this link http://www.iblist.com/book2276.htm . The one I decided to use as my basis was published by Faber and Faber in 2005, dimensions 5 x 7.6 x 0.9inches. This meant my template had to be 10.9 inches, and the middle 0.9 inches would be the spine, so I put guides in accordingly using photoshop elements 8. For my initial design, I used a black background and white text, and for the others I used a black background and white text on the back cover and spine, but black text on the cover over the image. One version was totally made up of the image and black text, but this did not show up well on the back cover and my attempts to lighten the image did not work in the way I hoped and so I decided not to choose this image.

Using type was the next challenge. As I explained above, some involved white text on a black background. My first attempt used Imprint MT shadow for the title and headings, and Times New Roman for the rest of the text. In the other versions, I also used Helevetica and Cambria as a variation. I was initially very happy with my initial attempt but then realised I had not included any text over the photo or integrated the photo as I would like and so I tried a few more variations.

This was my first attempt, which used Imprint MT Shadow text for the cover and spine (cover size 54/author 30 other text 14). The spine has text size 28 and 20 for the title and author respectively. On the back cover, I used Imprint MT Shadow size 30 for the title, then went for a sans-serif font Times New Roman bold at size 13 for the main text.

 I wanted to then try a version where the photo spanned the whole cover. First though I had to reverse the image as the building was on the wrong side for my plans, this was very simply done in photoshop elements 8. For this version, I used Arial for the cover (size 48 title and 30 author, spine 20/18), then Arial for the title on the back cover (22) then Times New Roman bold for the text size 10.

This was one version where I had cropped the landscape photo to give me a portrait view. This one uses Helevetica bold for the title (40, author 18) and the text has been placed in the blank spaces on the photograph. The spine uses Helevetica bold 24 then 18. The back cover is Helevetica reg 30 then the text is Cambria bold 13 for the book information then 11 for the blurb.

The final version uses Helevetica bold 44 for the title and size 24 for the author. The information about the Booker prize is size 14 in Helevetica bold oblique to emphasize the information. The spine is Helevetica size 22 and 12, then the back cover title  is Helevetica reg size 30, and the text is Times New Roman size 13.

On the whole, I am happy with the finished result as I feel it represents the time period and is not an obvious reference to the nature of the book, by including a butler as I cold have. The one change I would make is considering the shadow effects, the 2 shoots occurred on very different days weather wise and this was actually the easiest shadow to work with. I may also have taken images with a little more sky to give a little more flexibitlity as this could easily be cropped out. I found it challenging and fun at the same time, especially when I discovered that some of my ideas such as a table full of cutlery had been done in some form already after a more extensive google search. I have been exposed to the challenges book designers face when choosing a theme and it has already made me look more closely at fiction books after I read them to see if I can figure out why the decision was made for a certain image.

Part 2: Conceptual Cover Design

For this exercise, we had to look at different book covers and see if we could unpack why the designer chose the cover they did, and if the images would have been easy to take photographically.

The Honeymoon’s Over: True Stories of Love, Marriage, and Divorced by Andrea Chapin and Sally Wofford-Girand (2007)

This image is very simple, and is to depict a book that has 21 stories and give an idea of what all these stories are about. Burnt toast is a great picture to symbolise problems in relationships in my opinion, it represents things starting to go wrong. It matches the title as well. Using a plain white background means the toast stands out a lot, and highlights the burnt quality of the toast. The designer also chose to use all capital letters, which kind of emphasises the title. The editors are written in a lighter font, perhaps as they have not written the main text and the authors are more prominent.

It seems like one font but in different colours and sizes has been used.

Missing Men by Joyce Johnson (2005)

This book is a memoir about women growing up with no fathers as they lost them when they were small, and how the younger one, having also grown up with no grandfather, looks for photos to see if she can piece together her family. It also seems to be a story about how powerful family photos can be and the secrets that can be kept, and if there are no photos of someone then somehow they did not exist. The author also lost a husband and left the second one, and so there has been a major absence or loss of men in her life. The cover of the book shows a bed that has been slept in but currently has no occupant, perhaps pointing to the loss of men in the author’s life. The pillow is obviously well used but there is no-one there. The i in the title has been left out, and the shape in the bed infers the missing letter. According to the book cover archive, the fonts used are trade gothic and century. The designer (Joe Montgomery) has used italics to highlight the author’s previous works, and has included one review on the front to try and draw people in. The publisher logo is positioned above the information in italics, quite prominent and obvious but not distracting from the overall content of the photo.

NoVA by James Boice (2008)

This novel is set around the life of a teenager who hangs himself, and what life in suburbia is like. It talks about how he came to die. It is a comment on how America is to live in and what goes on behind the scenes, even when things look good on the surface. The cover is very cleanly shot, which seems to represent the cleanness of suburbia. There is also a white picket fence, which of course places the novel clearly in suburbia, and the sun is also just coming through the fence. It is very minimalist. I think the image is inverted as the book is from the perspective of someone who hanged themselves, maybe this is what their last view of suburbia was. The designer was Paul Sahre, and the type is all in Prensa. The title has a capital V and A at the end, perhaps because the story is named after Northern Virginia where it is set. Again, the designer has used italics to show a previous book by the same author, and there is a lot of clean space at the bottom of the photo which has not been disturbed with the writing. 

The Opposite House by Helen Oyeyemi (2008)

This novel is about migration and how it can affect people, the feelings of being disconnected. The image on the cover is inverted and is of a street, perhaps representing a disconnected memory of a life in the past that one of the characters had in a previous country. The cover for this was designed by Rodrigo Corral, and it looks like the photo was taken specifically for the cover, of a regular street at sunset. Interestingly, only one font, copperplate, is used, in varying sizes and in capitals throughout. I am curious that the author is written in a larger font than the title, drawing more attention. This time, the author’s previous book is underlines rather than in italics, still emphasised.  There is a review on the cover but due to the text size I almost missed it the first time I studied the image.

A General Theory of Love by Thomas Lewis (2001)

This book sets out to answer the question “What is love?”  The image shows empty chairs in a somewhat empty space and so we are drawn to look at them. The room they are in has nothing much inside, and seems to be lit by windows on either side. One of the chairs is resting on the other one, perhaps a symbol of love meaning one person can lean on the other for support. All the text on the cover is helevetica, and this has been placed inside a box at the top of the picture. It seems again like the photo was shot especially for the book, and all they needed was an empty space for the shoot, maybe in a studio. The designer chose to put a review on the cover, maybe to highlight it.

Presence: Collected Stories of Arthur Miller (2008)

This is a collection of 6 stories, which all seem quite varied and it is interesting to see that the book was named after the final one, and the image seems more in keeping with this story than with the others. It was also a compilation made after his death, and so may represent the feeling that the author is still with us even though he is now dead. The image is simple yet striking, a ghostly figure appearing from the fog. It definitely to me fits the title of the book, knowing someone is there but them not being clear. We are not told the fonts, but the author is at the top and in a much larger font than the title again. The font used for the author is quite flamboyant, in contrast with the plainness of the title, which is also all in capitals. There is one review at the bottom in white text, which is not clear in the version I have seen except that the review is from the Boston Globe, a prominent source.

Part 2: Choosing your imagery

This exercise is one where I had to look at book covers and find ones with a certain theme then write about them and why the design may have been chosen.

An out-of -focus photograph:

Wake Up Sir! By Jonathan Ames

The image is both out of focus and slanted to one side on this cover, which highlights the story quite well as it is about whether the character depicted in the photo exists or not. It is a novel where the main character drinks a lot and so therefore is unsure if he has a butler or not, I think the image shows this quite well, especially having the image at an angle. This immediately made me guess the drinking theme of the story and so it is quite an accurate portrayal, and although blurred, it is obvious that the image is of a butler-type character. 

An inverted photograph:

Lost and Found by C.P. Surendran

The image on the front cover is upside down, and there are items appearing to fall from the buildings which are items mentioned in the synopsis. The book has a lot of different characters, including a Pakistani terrorist living in Mumbai, a beggar who is now in films, an autorickshaw driver, and includes lots of different stories depicting the characters. The images appearing to fall and the plane lead us to think about what might happen and also to me give a sense of the potential chaotic nature of the book. The man falling in the picture has also displaced the O, again leading me to think about chaos. 

An historical archival photograph, but not depicting the subject precisely:

Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

The edition I chose is not strictly fitting the criteria but I feel it illustrates it well anyway. The book is set in post-world war 1 Britain, which to me means there should be a black and white photo on the cover, but this edition has a colour photo of a field leading into a small forest. The book discusses death, of soldiers in the war and of one of the main characters who commits suicide, and the simplicity of the image with the shadows gives a sense of peace within the theme of death. 

A still-life close-up

The Body by Hanif Kureishi

The cover has what looks like a set of plain Russian dolls on the front, shot from the top and 2 have the lid missing. The story is about an old man dealing with his own mortality, having his brain transplanted into a younger body, and all the issues of mind/body separation that come with it. The story is about different kinds of bodies, and the plainness of the Russian dolls on the cover depicts the simplicity of the body, contrasting with the complicated nature of the mind. The missing lids on 2 dolls point to the transplant – removal of the core. 

A minimalist landscape or outdoor scene with a large area of sky

The “Driving over Lemons” trilogy by Chris Stewart

All 3 covers have a large area of bright blue sky, depicting the ideal view that people have of this region of Spain. This draws you in, you want to find out more about this magical area. It also gives a similarity to the 3 books, making them related to each other in some way. The blue draws out the bright colours on the covers too, and we expect a bright story inside. What we get is a truthful account of what life is really like for a Brit moving to the area, and lots of humour too. As soon as I saw the theme, I thought of these books, although my copies are actually in the UK at the moment.

  

  

Nikon: Photo 3 workshop, Kota KInabalu

After a wait, we finally saw a Photo 3 workshop coming up, and so got Anna to come too as she was looking for a more creative workshop than the practicality of Photo 1 and Photo 2. This workshop has a more practical element and involves going out on a shoot where you have to focus on texture, mood, colour among other things. I chose to focus on texture. Of course the photo shoot happened in the middle of the day, not the optimum time for a shoot, but nevertheless, the 4 of us who went out together had some fun and felt challenged by it. We then had to submit 3 images, which were then critiqued by others, although due to the sheer amount of participants, by the time they got to mine it didn't really happen! I had lots of fun taking shots of things being carried in the back of 4 wheel drives, which of course attracted a lot of attention :)

I chose these 3 as they were varied but each one does fit my chosen theme of texture. The jeans were hanging in the area of KK town where the graffiti is, and I liked the texture of them and also the colours. I was again using the 50 mm lens, and had my aperture set at 1.8, a challenge in such bright sunshine! The leaf was a colour contrast as well as a texture one, and I thought the number plate was a fun picture of the theme.

Nikon Club: Get Together 3, Kota Kinabalu

On the 26th Feb, Nikon had another get together in KK, which was a great chance to catch up with old friends and practice shooting models again. This was also a competition to win a nikon 1 camera, and so there was a lot of motivation to try and get good shots :) There was a lot of excitement from the male quarters as one model in particular did not appear to be wearing much! We followed the crowds, and watched as others set the models up and then shot. I was limited to my 50mm f1.8 lens as lending Anna the d3100 meant we had to give her my kit lens, but actually this proved a useful exercise in using one focal length and I enjoyed it. I had lots of flash issues, I kept getting everything overexposed despite using it under power. It was also tricky as lots of people were using flash and sometimes I got a few flashes in my photo which didn't help with the overexposure issues!

Overall, I was pleased with some of my shots, despite this definitely not being my first choice of shoot (documentary is soooo much more my thing, I hate set up shoots).

Part 2: Experiment with layouts

The next exercise involved lots of research into font types, and what fonts work better for what kids of texts, following links given. The information in the course talked about serif fonts being easier to read in large amounts than sans serif fonts, which I find interesting as I have always gone for writing essays in sans serif fonts such as arial, which I have found nicer to read. But now, having done this exercise, I will print my next MA assignment out in both types of font and see how it feels to read it. 

For this assignment, we had to experiment with 3 different layouts, with a picture, heading and text on the page. I used A5 size, 148x210mm. One problem that I faced was being unable to properly type in columns in photoshop, which is one reason I mentioned in my last post that photoshop may not be the best programme to use for this kind of project. The course book recommends, as I mentioned above, that we can use different text types for contrast. I decided to use a real photo so I could get more of an idea of how this would fit together. To make the columns, I made 2 text boxes, and again used the lorem ipsum text generator.

Layout 1 has a sans serif heading (trebuchet, 30 point), serif text (times, 10 point), and sans serif caption (verdana, 6 point).

Layout 2 has a serif heading (courier, 30 point), sans serif text (verdana, 9 point), and serif caption (times, 6 point).

Layout 3 has all sans serif text. The heading is calibri (34 point), text (verdana, 9 point), and caption (arial, 6 point).

Whilst I will always say that I don't like times as a font, in this case I believe Layout 1 is the easiest to read and to work with. The text in the 2nd and third seems big and clumsy (I did reduce the size more initially but then it was too small to read!). In layout 1, the heading is eyecatching and draws you in more to read the text. I used different fonts to the heading and text for the caption, which shows that this is something in it's own right and think that this does not make the document too messy.

Part 2: Applying a drop shadow to type

Before this exercise, we had to look at making new files in photoshop, something I am familiar with from book making projects. We had to add text and a heading, and move it around to see what effect it had with the text in different places. Then we had to add a drop shadow to the heading to see what that looked like. This was quite a challenge as it involved duplicating layers which for some reason was not as easy as it sounds! I had to look up how to rasterize the layer as it was not as simple as it looks in the instructions. It was an interesting exercise, but I am not sure photoshop is the best programme for this if adding text as there are limitations. 

I liked this effect as it was slightly different to the example, and after playing with lots of different angles and shades of grey. I generated text using the website http://www.lipsum.com/cgi-bin/lipsum.pl which is used for this kind of activity where you need to see what text looks like in a document before it is created.