Research - Cover Designers
As part of my research for this brief I will undertake research into a range of book cover designers to understand what makes a successful book cover design. I will look at a range of designers who all embody different styles that I feel have all worked well in creating successful cover designs. I can then attempt to isolate these successful comments and incorporate them into my designs.
Chip Kidd
The first designer I researched was Chip Kidd, he was born in 1964 and is best known for his book cover designs. He currently works as the associate art director of 'Knoph' the New York publishing house. However his successes have followed him throughout his career working for the likes of Amazon, Penguin and Columbia University Press. Examples of Kidd's worked include his cover for Jurassic Park (seen below) I like this image as I feel there is a nice juxtaposition between the text and illustration. I think Chip Kidd's style works well with the limitations I face within this brief as I am only allowed to use 2 colours plus stock, This designs shows how the limited use of colour can still be extremely effective. I like the style of Chip Kidd, I feel his designs are bold and engaging even when using minimal imagery and colour palette.
Jennifer Carrow
Jennifer Carrow is a designer based in New York currently working as a senior designer at Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Her designs seem bold and engaging which I like, She seems to experiment more with typography than other designers I have looked at. These seem to make up some of the main features of her work which are then often complemented with bold colours and simple illustration. There is evidence of her working with photography on her website; http://www.jennifercarrow.com however I feel her illustrative and typographic covers are the most effective. Again there is minimal colour used within Carrow's work a prime example of how this has been used effectively can be seen below. I like the contrast of serif and sans-serif typography to distinguish the Author from the title, I think the curve also works well to create a simple yet bold design.
Peter Mendelsund
Similarly to Chip Kidd, Peter Mendelsund also works as an associate art director for 'Knoph' publications. He is both an author and designer with his own title 'we see what we read' published in 2014. Mendelsund has an unapologetically smart and sophisticated style to his works, his designs are described as white and conceptually smart which makes his designs extremely aesthetically pleasing. I like the composition of his works as they are often more spirratic and exciting that standard book cover designs. I especially like his work on the girl with the dragon tattoo (seen below) I think the texture works really well to create a diverse and interesting book cover design, this design is then added to the typography with the letterforms missing pieces consistent with the patterns in the background, I fee this is a good example of how the image and text can work together creating a hollistically well designed cover.
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