Design Principles - What is a Book - Cover Design

Design Principles

What is a book? 
Cover Design 

I wanted my cover to reflect the content within and keep to an visually similar aesthetic to the rest of my context. This meant I wanted a simple and contemporary design that has darker elements that could be sinister. I was inspired by a business card from the PPP module as it was simple and contemporary yet I thought it was intriguingly dark and this drew me to the design wanting to look closer and engage with it. I like the two tone black to create a minimal yet effective contrast, the overall aesthetic is very contemporary and I feel as though I could develop a similar design that would work well with my concept. 

Inspiration

Digital Mock Up

Screen Print Positive

I created this initial mock up design in photoshop and think it works well in taking inspiration fro the above business card and applying it to my content. The simple design is extremely minimal which I feel works well to create an enigmatic design that will make the user want to look closer and interact with the design. I had used the GT pressure for the text as this is consistent with the titles throughout my publication. I have placed this inside a geometiric shape which I feel works well as this is the consistent element through that brings each page together.  I think this design works well but wanted it to have a tactile feel including texture as I have digitally included this within my book. I plan to de-boss the geometric shape and use spot varnish to screen print the outline of the space and text onto my cover as this will create an engaging aesthetic that is tactile and quirky. 

I started by creating me de-bossing stencil, I had never de-bossed before so wanted to experiment with a range of materials, I cut a stencil from acrylic using the laser cutter as I thought acrylic was hardwearing and would be sure to de-boss into most board. Also experimented with greyboard as I was initially unsure if acrylic would cut the board I wanted to de-boss onto. I used the Hydraulic Nipping press to de-boss onto my board based on the advice of print room technicians. I found that the acrylic stencil left the best impression in the mount board as it was clean and precise, it also didn't require a new stencil for each impression like the greyboard did. 

I also discussed how I would execute this two step process with the technicians they told me it would be best to de-boss first then screen print as it would be easier to line up the screen print with the de-bossing than vice versa as it is extremely hard to position the stencil on the screen printed design and not knock it off centre as you insert it into the nipping press. The technicians showed me how to use the hydraulic press and I created a number of impressions in preparation fro screen printing. 

I found it extremely difficult to line up the impression with the screen print as the spot varnish was extremely thin and blocked the screen easily so I had to work really fast which didnt give me sufficient time to line the acetate guide up with the de-bossing. I was also problematic that I was printing onto black stock as the screen print table is also black and the spot varnish template on the acetate didn't show up very well against this so it essential guess work. It was extremely inconsistent and out of 12 de-bossed sheets I only created one usable design however this was still inconsistent with with the amount of spot varnish applied making it dry with too much exes in the top corner. 

I then went back to university to get feedback from my tutor, I explained the temperamental process and showed him the one design that was usable and an alternative that was purely screen printed with no impression. I wanted to use the de-bodding but it wasn't of a high enough quality to be used on my final design. My tutor agreed that it was inconsistent but was a good design and he really liked the use of de-bossing. He then suggested that I de-bossed the geometric shape and only screen printed the text wit hips varnish as this would make it a lot easier to produce consistently.  I thought this was good compromise and wanted to experiment more with it as it thought the de-bossed impression worked really well. I received this feedback on the last day of the semester before the easter break so plan to screen print this alternative on the first day back before the final critique.