Initial book cover developments

Idea 1

Chewing gum is an object within the book that symbolises a number of things. It is one of the items that is left for Scout and Jem by Boo Radley. The gum is an act of kindness, showing that he is there looking over the kids and their safety. The book specifically identifies the gum to be in the strip format, so I have found the original packaging design of the Wrigley's spearmint strip gum. Fig.1shows the process taken to manipulate the packaging so that it can display the title of the book. Research lead me to find out that there is no accurate typeface used for the chewing gum packaging as it was thought to be hand designed by Otis Shepard. The typeface choices were based on trial and error and also research into the commonly used typefaces during the 1930s and more specifically, the modernist movement. The top two lines of type use the typeface Futura and the bottom line uses PT Serif Caption. 

The final mockup of the packaging was drawn on photoshop using the shape tool and pen tool. This allowed for the vectors to be  accurately manipulated to represent the original packaging in the most accurate way. Fig. 2 shows how it could be placed on the front cover of the book. 

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Idea 2

Still focusing on the found objects, I thought it would be interesting to find the modern equivalents (fig.4) as a fresh approach to the book. The idea is to take the objects and choose a relevant, but bright colour as the background and then arrange them in a similar style to the work of Jordan Bolton (fig.3). This interpretation of the book would appeal to the target audience, as flat lays seem to be a current trend in a lot of design outcomes and on social media images. Instantly presenting all of the objects to the audience allow them to begin the thought process of trying to figure out the relevance of each of the objects, but without giving the storyline away. 

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Idea 3
This idea uses the 10 adjectives from the 2nd task, designed to work within and around the mockingbird. Fig.5 shows the process, using the divide tool to separate each part of the letter that was inside and out of the mockingbird so that the colours and line weights could be individually changed. I chose to use the pastel blue as a way to represent the innocence that is present throughout the majority of the book. 

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Idea 4
One of the main concepts within the book is the focus on moral education and that the lessons of sympathy and understanding are very important. A sympathetic, understanding approach is the best way to teach these lessons, so focusing on the idea of teaching a chalkboard is something associated with a school during this time period. Figure 7 shows a chalkboard textured background and how the white fonts would look on this. The front cover would have the traditional alphabet teaching guidelines drawn out and the type would fit onto these in the same style as shown in fig. 8.

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Idea 5
This idea is based on the idea that Atticus finch's lenses are thought to represent his perception on equality and freedom for the the races. The lenses throughout the book are believed to metaphorically have 'justice' written on them. 
The quote by Atticus Finch: "I do my best to love everybody ... I'm hard put, sometimes - baby, it's never an insult to be called what somebody thinks is a bad name. It just shows you how poor that person is, it doesn't hurt you." clearly supports this idea. Later in the book we are shown that this voice that usually shares hope for change, has come to accept that racism is actually a "fact of life". 
"There's something in our world that makes men lose their heads - they couldn't be fair if they tried. In our courts, when it's a white man's world against a black man's, the white man always wins. They're ugly, but those are the facts of life."
To represent the idea that the glasses no longer symbolise the justice that Atticus is looking for, I designed the lenses so that they appear smashed (fig. 9).

Fig. 9

Idea 6

The nickel is used throughout the book every time Mayella asks Tom Robinson for help. In return for help, she would offer him a nickel soon after. I decided to mix a few other elements together to create the pattern shown in Fig. 13. 

Crayons were one of the objects present in the box that the children collect from Boo Radley. I decided to use crayons to create rubbings of a 10p coin and then I scanned this into the computer so that I could experiment with the texture. 

Another reoccurring pattern/shape int he film was the wired fencing separating the town from Boo Radley's house. Figures 11 and 12 show some screenshots of the film where the fence is seen to be an obstacle, or barrier of safety for the 3 children. 

The final pattern was created by making a clipping mask of one of the coins into the hexagon shape and then tiling them together to make the final visual. 

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Idea 7
The continuous emphasis on the fact that social inequality still doesn't exist within society allows for the different social statuses to be explored and the need for equality is emphasised. The design of this book cover uses a mathematic equals symbol as the main visuals. The lengths of one of the lines has been changed in length to show the inequality that is presented in this book.