Book: Initial ideas

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

Fig. 3

To begin the design process I started with 31 thumbnail sketches that could later be developed further. The top left thumbnails on fig.1 show how the ripped jeans could work in an illustrative way on the front cover, providing a frame for the type that is also needed on the front. The top left design could work in an interesting way fi it wasn't only needed in a printed format, as layers could be used to show the tears in the jeans. The bottom three designs of fig.1 focus on the idea of education and how it is a theme that runs throughout the book. Throughout the book Atticus is teaching the children to view things from an adults point of view, taking away their innocent outlook to events. 

A lot of the designs on fig.2 are based on the different objects that the children find in the tree, with most of them focusing on the chewing gum as it is one of the most vital objects used to represent Boo Radley's status as a guardian angel-like figure to the children. To further develop this idea, it would be interesting to look at the original packaging of chewing gum of that time and look at how the design style could influence the process of my book cover design.  

The top half of fig.3 shows the designs influenced by the equals symbol, representing the lack of equality during the tine that the book was set. To develop these ideas, research into ways that the layout and presentation of colour could be used to illustrate the inequality in the most explicit and powerful way. The bottom right design uses the geometric shaping of the fencing that is used throughout the film to show the divide between the children and the Radley's house. It could symbolise the boundaries of safe and danger, well in the minds of the town people not the children as they see Boo Radley as a mystery rather than a danger.