OUGD503 - Penguin Design Awards: Book Cover Analysis

OUGD503 - Studio Brief 1/Penguin Design Awards 

Book Cover Analysis

The existing cover for Caitlin Moran’s ‘How To Be A Woman’ lacks a certain engagement from an aesthetic perspective. There is little white space within the composition which creates an almost claustrophobic feel with the large text elements being tightly packed together. The oversized titles reinforce this claustrophobic feel with the ‘How to be a woman’ typeface contrasting the rest of the body copy in a display script that one can only assume is supposed to represent nature with the natural curves which could be a subtle reference towards ‘the lady garden’ as this is one of the active topics within the book.

Although the book is partly based on Moran’s own experiences and part social commentary I feel the cover design focuses too much on the author as an individual. This could have been an initial marketing tool to use her status as a popular and successful journalist to promote and sell the book, however the issues discussed transcend individual perceptions and beliefs are common amongst all women therefore using the author as the focal point within the cover design is unnecessary and slightly contradicting to the books ethos. This is further reinforce through the name placement of the author taking up the whole first third of the cover and will be the first thing seen when stacked on a busy bookshelf. This further reinforces the notion that the aesthetic is based on Moran’s status as a controversial journalist to sell the book as opposed to its content.

The Colour scheme is very dark as a whole, the feature foiling brings out the title and author on a physical copy however digitally this is not effective and presents a flattened image that is far less engaging. The green background is gradiented to draw the eye to the image of the author leaving a dark dull colour at the top of the book which will not appeal to the target audience as it isn’t bold or eye-catching at a glace. Overall I feel the book cover design could benefit from bold engaging imagery that focuses on the contents topics more holistically than the author, this can be brought to life through a bolder colour-scheme with a more effective composition to free up white space in order for the design to become more aesthetically pleasing and more effectively target its key demographic.