Grids & Layout - Penguin Classics Book Covers

Using the 'Marber Grid' I re-designed three Penguin crime classics. I wanted to break the grid, by flipping the Marber grid upside down, in order to give the classic grid a more modern and fresh perspective. I believe this has been successful because the outcomes look familiar yet different, it plays on the classic design, therefore making it visually stimulating for the audience. The copy for the covers was researched, and original information used. The typeface used was Helvetica, this was done in order to play further with the idea of a modern take on the cover designs.The imagery used was found imagery, edited and manipulated to become more simplistic and abstract. This was a nod to the classic penguin cover designs, as they also utilised abstract and simple imagery. The aim of the imagery for me was for it to be intriguing and stand out, but also for it to be cohesive with the rest of the cover design. This is why I attempted to use the same colour palette throughout each separate design, as well as the neutral black and white colours.

The book covers were initially intended to be book sleeve designs, and therefore a design for the inside of the sleeve was expected. For this, we were meant to showcase Romek Marber's biographical timeline. For these designs, I expanded some of the grid guidelines used within the front cover, and designed a timeline that would fill the space, as well as be easy to follow. The typeface used was also Helvetica, and the colour palette for each inside sleeve design was correspondent to the colour palette of each book cover design. These features allowed a cohesiveness to be maintained between the front and back of the sleeve design. 

Developments:

Although I believe my designs had been successful, upon re-visiting them I had realised some design features were not appropriate, specifically colour. In the first book cover design 'The case of the turning tide', the colour palette was quite dark. Because of this, not only did the design feel less than exciting or attention grabbing, it also made some of the information on the cover illegible. The blurb being in a dark pink, set against a medium/dark blue background made it quite difficult and irritating to read as the colours clashed/contrasted. To solve this problem, I had decided to lighten the background colour to a lighter and more grey blue. This had proved to be successful as the dark pink text became a lot more legible, and the overall look and atmosphere of the cover design became more uplifting and engaging. 

Another small change I made was within the second cover design 'Busman's Honeymoon', and it's inside sleeve timeline. The problem was once again colour, where in the information about Romek Marber was also fairly difficult to read. This was due to the opposite problem than from the first book cover, the colours did not clash, but were to similar, making the text seem to be engulfed and blurred by the background. To solve this issue, the text colour of the information about Romek Marber was changed into a white. This appeared to give the text more of a gleam, and made it stand out far more against background.