Part 2 Exercise : Book Cover Design [Level 1, Unit 1]

Brief :

Challenge is to create stunning & contemporary cover designs for three of the paperback books that can work together as a set, written by most acclaimed authors of 20th century, HG Wells. He is known for science fiction & social novels, covering the topics such as mid-life crisis, class, feminism, materialism, consumerism & love. The cover designs must include the title, author’s name, publisher’s name/ logo/ trademark, barcode / price, etc.

Research :

I love to read various novels, fictions, nonfictions, etc.  & have studied English language along with History as a major subject during graduation of Arts, from Mumbai University. So, I’m interested in English as a language & History. I always prefer to accomplish something extra-ordinary than following the same route. So, even though being fascinated by the temptation of creating cover designs for ‘The Time Machine’ & some other most famous books by HG Wells, I have tried to tread a different route: to create designs for his three books which are actually compilations of his writings. The three books I have selected are actually individual books but can work together as a set surely as per their themes. For this purpose, I carried out primary research about HG Wells & his writings with the help of Wikipedia & Google as my sources of authentic information.

About HG Wells :

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._G._Wells?wprov=sfla1

I found the names of almost fifty one of his books (novels, fiction, non fiction, compilations, etc. literary works) as follows: 

1. The Time Machine
2. The Wonderful Visit
3. The Stolen Bacillus & Other Incidents
4. The Red Room
5. The Sea Raiders
6. The Island Of Doctor Moreau
7. The Wheels of Chance
8. The Crystal Egg
9. The War Of The Worlds
10. The Plattner Story & Others
11. A Story Of The Days To Come
12. The Sleeper Awakes
13. Love & Mr. Lewisham
14. Tales Of Space & Time
15. A Modern Utopia
16. The First Man In The Moon
17. The Anticipations Of The Reaction Of Mechanical & Scientific Progress Upon The Human Life & Thought
18. The Discovery Of The Future
19. The Sea Lady
20. Man In The Making
21. The Country Of The Blind
22. The Food Of The Gods & How It Came To Earth
23. Kipps: The Story Of A Simple Soul
24. In The Days Of The Comet
25. The War In The Air
26. Tono-Bungay
27. Ann Veronica
28. The History Of Mr. Polly
29. The New Machiavelli
30. The Floor Games
31. The country Of The Blind & Other Stories
32. Little Wars
33. The World Set Free
34. The Wife Sir Isaac Harman
35. The Research Magnificent
36. Mr. Brittling Sees It Through
37. God The Invisible King
38. The Soul Of The Bishop
39. Joan & Peter
40. The Outline Of The History
41. A Short History Of The World
42. Men Like Gods
43. Mr. Blettsworthy on Rampole Island
44. The Science Of Life
45. The Shape Of The Things To Come
46. Experiment in Autobiography
47. The Croquet Player
48. Star Begotten
49. World Brain
50. The New World Order
51. The Mind At The End Of Its Tether

Among the above list, I found that many others must have created covered for the fictions only to create the set of designs, for example:

1. https://jaimecrehangraphicdesign.wordpress.com/category/coursework/part-2/exercise-2-book-cover-design/
2. http://learninglogjb.blogspot.in/2013/05/part-two-problem-solving-exercises.html
3. https://rickymooreoca.wordpress.com/2013/03/17/exercise-book-cover-design/

So, I decided to create cover designs for the books which aren’t actually novels but compilations of writings by HG Wells, which can be a set:

1. The Outline Of The History
2. A Short History Of The World
3. The New World Order

 The information about these three books (Source: Wikipedia) – 

The Outline Of The History :

The Outline of History, subtitled either “The Whole Story of Man” or “Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind“, is a work by H. G. Wells that first appeared in an illustrated version of 24 fortnightly installments beginning on 22 November 1919 and was published as a single volume in 1920. It sold more than two million copies, was translated into many languages, and had a considerable impact on the teaching of history in institutions of higher education. Wells modelled the Outline on the Encyclopédie of Denis Diderot. Many revised versions were produced during Wells’s lifetime, and the author kept notes on factual corrections he received from around the world. The last revision in his lifetime was published in 1937. The themes explored in the book were history as a quest for a common purpose, recurrent conquest of civilisation by the nomads, development of free intelligence, rejection of racial and cultural superiority, criticism of potential world unifiers, while omitting and neglecting the aspects of world history like ancient Greek philosophy, Roman law, etc. There were allegations of plagiarism about this book but were unproven. This book inspired art, culture, literature and reflected in socio-political life in general.

Keywords : outline, history, whole, story, life, mankind, illustrated, version, fortnightly, installments, single volume, 2 million copies, translated, languages, impact, teaching, higher education, institutions, revised versions, factual, corrections, themes, quest, common, purpose, recurrent, conquest, civilization, nomads, development, free, intelligence, rejection, racial, cultural, superiority, criticism, potential, world unifiers, omitting, neglecting, ancient, Greek philosophy, Roman law, inspired, art, culture, literature, socio-political.

Some book covers designed by designers & publishers previously for this book :

A Short History Of The World :

A Short History of the World is a period-piece non-fictional historic work by H. G. Wells first published by Cassell & Co, Ltd Publishing in 1922. It was first published in Penguin Books in 1936. It was republished under Penguin Classicsin 2006. The book was largely inspired by Wells’s earlier 1919 work The Outline of History. The book is 344 pages in total, summarising the scientific knowledge of the time regarding the history of Earth and life. It starts with its origins, goes on to explain the development of the Earth and life on Earth, reaching primitive thought and the development of humankind from the Cradle of Civilisation. The book ends with the outcome of the First World War, the Russian famine of 1921, and the League of Nations in 1922.

Keywords : short, history, world, non-fictional, inspired, summarizing, scientific, knowledge, time, earth, life, origins, development, primitive, thought, humankind, cradle, civilization, outcome, First World War, Russian famine, League of Nations.

Some book covers designed by designers & publishers previously for this book :

The New World Order :

The New World Order is a book written by H. G. Wells, originally published in January 1940. Wells expressed the idea that a ‘new world order‘ should be formed to unite the nations of the world in order to bring peace and end war.The New World Order also advocates a legal system that would protect the Rights of Man.  It was republished in 2007 under ISBN 1-59986-727-3.

Keywords : new, world, order, idea, unite, nations, peace, end, war, advocates, legal, system, protect, rights, man.

Some book covers designed by designers & publishers previously :

Mind mapping based on brief, research, keywords and radical solutions :

As I already work as a freelance graphic designer, I’m used to design for various purposes, for example book cover design as well. But, just to make sure about following the guidelines & standards on an International level, I studied a blog-post:

https://99designs.com/designer-resource-center/designing-book-covers

Reference book covers (Source: 99designs.com) :

Obvious & Radical Solutions :

Initially, I have drawn rough sketches for the three books as follows, using paper & pen:

 

I undertook a search for free photographs & images using Google & some other websites offering wallpaper & images, required for designing the covers. Some of them are:

Font Choice : For the purpose of conveying an authenticity of the information provided in the books regarding history & order, I thought of writing the book titles in uppercase only & not as lowercases except initials of each word. For reflecting the authenticity, I gave preference to fonts which are bold & having serifs, slab serifs as well as some sans serifs which reflect authenticity, trustworthiness & remain impactful, for example :

1. Adobe Garamond Pro Bold
2. Aharoni
3. Academy Engraved LET
4. Adobe Arabic
5. AakrutiMar_BVijay
6. Algerian
7. Aparajita
8. Arial Black
9. Ano Pro
10. Bell Gothic Std Black
11. Bevan
12. Britannic Bold
13. Callisto MT
14. Cambria

I have finalized Cambria font for book title & name of the author while Traditional Arabic’ for the body text on back cover for all three designs.

Publication Firm Logo : I have also found ‘Penguin’ logo in vector form of the publication.

Softwares Used : As I’m fluent in using CorelDRAW as my main vector software, I have used it to design the main cover design, along with the photo-editing software like Corel PHOTOPAINT.

Tools Used : Shape tool, Rectangle tool, Ellipse tool, Text Tool, Transparency Tool,

Size : Front & Back cover (14 x 21.5 cm) & Spine (2.5 x 21.5 cm).

Final Three Designs :

Prototype : I have printed the designs on a simple paper & pasted the designs on the book whose measurements I have used for designs. The book has almost 300 pages.

The Outline Of The History :

A Short History Of The World :

The New World Order :