I'd say the other reason that I sketched so little was spring break being right at the beginning of this project.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Book Cover Sketches
This was a tough project to sketch for, more than anything I made lists or word associations and that type thing. But here are some of my sketches before I moved to digitals.
I'd say the other reason that I sketched so little was spring break being right at the beginning of this project.
I'd say the other reason that I sketched so little was spring break being right at the beginning of this project.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Progress with Book Cover
End of Eternity is coming along, I think. I've animated the mushroom cloud with watercolors, so it doesn't look photo at all...unfortunately, now I'm wondering if the look suits the book...It's still without text, and the colors wouldn't be hard to change, but a lovely watercolor of a mushroom cloud, does that say "cerebral, sci-fi, intrigue"? Does it show anything even remotely akin to Asimov?
On a good note, it is a nice image, fun to look at, nice effect. Just feels a little, I dunno, "pretty" to cover a space-race style temporal drama...Then again, according to what actually happens in the story, due to the existence of Eternity, man is able to avoid the threat of nuclear holocaust (amongst other catastrophes) and the human world is outwardly harmonious...until it is discovered that the same catastrophes humanity is avoiding are the key its progressing, so in a way, avoiding tragedy and making everything nice is leading to ruin.
Maybe I can still make this cover work well, with a few minor elements.
The other issue is with the remaining two covers. Like this cover, I have collected some real finds as far as symbolic elements (things that work in Time Machine and Graveyard Game in the same way that the mushroom cloud does for End of Eternity). For Time Machine these things are: the Sphynx, Weena's white flower, and the ocean with the sun above it. For Graveyard Games they are the Botanist Mendoza (nice vintage stock I didn't expect to find), hot chocolate, postcards, and the Catalina Island Hotel.
The problems I feel like I need to solve still are these: how to execute these ideas, show the symbolism and give a taste of the story, whilst keeping the books consistent as a unit. The same unity of symbolism, theme, and concept that provides insight (or gives reason) to the cover of End of Eternity, needs to be evident in the other two--Time Machine needs to communicate something about technology and humanity, and maybe give some hint of Victorian London...Graveyard Game needs to communicate something about comedy, sadness, and maybe a little of the Classical Hollywood glam (though the story takes place amidst centuries, all the Operatives of the Company are huge film buffs, even their language, Cinema Standard, is English modeled after that of early films).
I'm really exhausted...but this should've been nailed down a while ago, and I shouldn't have let all the changes at home keep me from enjoying this project or making it look great, what with Spring Break in the middle of it and everything. Cor.
So I think the ticket is to use the watercoloring medium to bring out the most human element, since its soft and makes great colors. Then, that element can be juxtaposed with a harder element, like making a big soft fluffy mushroom cloud, or maybe the harder element is, eh, gears or machinery or something. Still trying to figure out for Graveyard Game how it will all work...oh I did just get a good idea. Stains from coffee (or HOT COCOA) look an awful lot like watercolors. That would make a nice tie in.
Oh, the other idea that I had that I thought was pretty nifty: I had originally planned to orient each cover with the title and author on a strip of color down the middle of the image. Then I thought, why not, since I'm not using dust jackets, place the title and author on a wrap-around strip that only goes over the front cover? Then you still get the color, no pesky dust jacket--but a bookmark that comes with the book instead!
I'd like to learn how to gold leaf for these, so that I can eboss and gold leaf the spines. I've considered trying to orient the type on the spine so that for once the poor people of the world won't have to cock their heads like pug dogs to read what books are on the shelf.
Die cuts are still up in the air. And I still need to pin down some element to make the patterns for the inner covers with, maybe something that can be used again on the bookmark-jacket or the spine. Wondering if, somewhere on the cover, I should try and mention the whole "look these are time travel books each written in a different century"...that is pretty mind blowing. Maybe on the container element. Wonder if I can make the pages of the books themselves look really dusty without destroying them too much.
Best not get too far ahead of myself, the person who is supposed to have all of these mocked up and 1 completely done tomorrow...
On a good note, it is a nice image, fun to look at, nice effect. Just feels a little, I dunno, "pretty" to cover a space-race style temporal drama...Then again, according to what actually happens in the story, due to the existence of Eternity, man is able to avoid the threat of nuclear holocaust (amongst other catastrophes) and the human world is outwardly harmonious...until it is discovered that the same catastrophes humanity is avoiding are the key its progressing, so in a way, avoiding tragedy and making everything nice is leading to ruin.
Maybe I can still make this cover work well, with a few minor elements.
The other issue is with the remaining two covers. Like this cover, I have collected some real finds as far as symbolic elements (things that work in Time Machine and Graveyard Game in the same way that the mushroom cloud does for End of Eternity). For Time Machine these things are: the Sphynx, Weena's white flower, and the ocean with the sun above it. For Graveyard Games they are the Botanist Mendoza (nice vintage stock I didn't expect to find), hot chocolate, postcards, and the Catalina Island Hotel.
The problems I feel like I need to solve still are these: how to execute these ideas, show the symbolism and give a taste of the story, whilst keeping the books consistent as a unit. The same unity of symbolism, theme, and concept that provides insight (or gives reason) to the cover of End of Eternity, needs to be evident in the other two--Time Machine needs to communicate something about technology and humanity, and maybe give some hint of Victorian London...Graveyard Game needs to communicate something about comedy, sadness, and maybe a little of the Classical Hollywood glam (though the story takes place amidst centuries, all the Operatives of the Company are huge film buffs, even their language, Cinema Standard, is English modeled after that of early films).
I'm really exhausted...but this should've been nailed down a while ago, and I shouldn't have let all the changes at home keep me from enjoying this project or making it look great, what with Spring Break in the middle of it and everything. Cor.
So I think the ticket is to use the watercoloring medium to bring out the most human element, since its soft and makes great colors. Then, that element can be juxtaposed with a harder element, like making a big soft fluffy mushroom cloud, or maybe the harder element is, eh, gears or machinery or something. Still trying to figure out for Graveyard Game how it will all work...oh I did just get a good idea. Stains from coffee (or HOT COCOA) look an awful lot like watercolors. That would make a nice tie in.
Oh, the other idea that I had that I thought was pretty nifty: I had originally planned to orient each cover with the title and author on a strip of color down the middle of the image. Then I thought, why not, since I'm not using dust jackets, place the title and author on a wrap-around strip that only goes over the front cover? Then you still get the color, no pesky dust jacket--but a bookmark that comes with the book instead!
I'd like to learn how to gold leaf for these, so that I can eboss and gold leaf the spines. I've considered trying to orient the type on the spine so that for once the poor people of the world won't have to cock their heads like pug dogs to read what books are on the shelf.
Die cuts are still up in the air. And I still need to pin down some element to make the patterns for the inner covers with, maybe something that can be used again on the bookmark-jacket or the spine. Wondering if, somewhere on the cover, I should try and mention the whole "look these are time travel books each written in a different century"...that is pretty mind blowing. Maybe on the container element. Wonder if I can make the pages of the books themselves look really dusty without destroying them too much.
Best not get too far ahead of myself, the person who is supposed to have all of these mocked up and 1 completely done tomorrow...
Friday, March 12, 2010
Process Research - Genre Covers
Here are some book covers from within the Sci Fi realm that I was intrigued by. At this point, I'd like to explore the possibility of expressing with the book covers the differing time periods that my stories originate from--as I think the cultural flavor of the time greatly effects the flavor of each, even though they all surround the same idea of being able to control time or temporal phenomena.
In The Time Machine, the Time Traveller discovers that the very thing that has allowed him to see the future, technology, has lead to the loss of humanity by the remaining evolutionary offshoots of our race: the Morlocks have remained industrious, but lack the intelligence and restraint that distinguishes us from animals, while the Eloi have remained peaceful, but lack motivation or the will to learn.
In End of Eterniy, the Eternals discover that their meddling in temporal affairs to prevent catastrophe on Earth has caused human progress to stagnate, making humans among that last people to travel into space. Tragedy and strife are necessary for progress, as we invent and develop based on our need to survive.
In The Graveyard Game, the Operatives struggle as personified embodiments of the schism between technology and humanity, hoping to eke out some happiness for themselves as human beings in need of emotional connections, but also submit to their compulsion to fulfill the purpose for which they were designed by the Company. There is a very pronounced enmity between the greedy, ruthless coldness of Dr Zeus, which advances technology seemingly for power alone, and the scientists within who are so overspecialized that the morality of their work never enters their minds.
Anyway, on to the inspirational covers from this genre.
In The Time Machine, the Time Traveller discovers that the very thing that has allowed him to see the future, technology, has lead to the loss of humanity by the remaining evolutionary offshoots of our race: the Morlocks have remained industrious, but lack the intelligence and restraint that distinguishes us from animals, while the Eloi have remained peaceful, but lack motivation or the will to learn.
In End of Eterniy, the Eternals discover that their meddling in temporal affairs to prevent catastrophe on Earth has caused human progress to stagnate, making humans among that last people to travel into space. Tragedy and strife are necessary for progress, as we invent and develop based on our need to survive.
In The Graveyard Game, the Operatives struggle as personified embodiments of the schism between technology and humanity, hoping to eke out some happiness for themselves as human beings in need of emotional connections, but also submit to their compulsion to fulfill the purpose for which they were designed by the Company. There is a very pronounced enmity between the greedy, ruthless coldness of Dr Zeus, which advances technology seemingly for power alone, and the scientists within who are so overspecialized that the morality of their work never enters their minds.
Anyway, on to the inspirational covers from this genre.
Process Research - Existing Covers
My series fits well within the Sci-Fi genre, which brings to mind lots of space-related or surrealist type book covers. Sampled below are some of the existing covers for The Time Machine, End of Eternity and The Graveyard Game.
Time Machine covers tend to draw heavily on clock imagery, naturally, as well as scientic "timey-wimey" stuff, like algebraic-looking stuff, just floatin' around. This will be the toughest book, because so many people have read the Time Machine and grown accustomed to these types of images in association to it, but I don't necessarily think that they capture the feeling of the book, simply by referencing what it's about (which is only loosely limited to "time"). If a book is so popular, do people want to see images from the story-line? the Time Traveller standing in the ancient museum? Morlocks popping out of a hole in the ground? This will require some exploration.
End of Eternity is a cerebral sci-fi who-dun-it style thriller, which also happens to involve some very complex settings, most of which aren't described in much detail in the story, since the characters are the main focus. For this reason, I tend to dislike a lot of the "setting" style book covers that crop up for Asimov books. What are we looking at here? Some...space type things, a planet, a girl in there? I'm not so sure about it. Now, while I'm not sure it would make me want to read the story, I know my favorite of these covers is the one featuring the tunnel that goes on forever. I also like the psychedelic Asimov head one and the Cold War Robot style one of what I assume is Harlan tweaking with some time-related machine. The story definitely has a tone that, like many Ray Bradbury books, even if it was written today, you would feel that it had a flavor of having taken place during the space race.
The Graveyard Game was written in the early 2000s and has a very different feel from the other two, being written in the late 1800s and 1960s respectively. It's a story that is generally unknown, surrounding the fates of a number of cyborgs created by a large company in the near future (2200s), which are immortal. The travel through time simply by LIVING through the centuries at natural pace. The Graveyard Game takes place in several time periods, giving background on some of the characters and their fates, as the two main characters try to unearth information about their disappearing friends. These two covers, in what I think of as a kind of hybrid traditional sci-fi approach meets Dave McKean illustration actually does a fine job of drawing on the feeling set by the book. It is dramatic, but lacks the weight of "classicness" that surround books by such well-known authors as Wells and Asimov. I think I look most forward to this design.
Time Machine covers tend to draw heavily on clock imagery, naturally, as well as scientic "timey-wimey" stuff, like algebraic-looking stuff, just floatin' around. This will be the toughest book, because so many people have read the Time Machine and grown accustomed to these types of images in association to it, but I don't necessarily think that they capture the feeling of the book, simply by referencing what it's about (which is only loosely limited to "time"). If a book is so popular, do people want to see images from the story-line? the Time Traveller standing in the ancient museum? Morlocks popping out of a hole in the ground? This will require some exploration.
End of Eternity is a cerebral sci-fi who-dun-it style thriller, which also happens to involve some very complex settings, most of which aren't described in much detail in the story, since the characters are the main focus. For this reason, I tend to dislike a lot of the "setting" style book covers that crop up for Asimov books. What are we looking at here? Some...space type things, a planet, a girl in there? I'm not so sure about it. Now, while I'm not sure it would make me want to read the story, I know my favorite of these covers is the one featuring the tunnel that goes on forever. I also like the psychedelic Asimov head one and the Cold War Robot style one of what I assume is Harlan tweaking with some time-related machine. The story definitely has a tone that, like many Ray Bradbury books, even if it was written today, you would feel that it had a flavor of having taken place during the space race.
The Graveyard Game was written in the early 2000s and has a very different feel from the other two, being written in the late 1800s and 1960s respectively. It's a story that is generally unknown, surrounding the fates of a number of cyborgs created by a large company in the near future (2200s), which are immortal. The travel through time simply by LIVING through the centuries at natural pace. The Graveyard Game takes place in several time periods, giving background on some of the characters and their fates, as the two main characters try to unearth information about their disappearing friends. These two covers, in what I think of as a kind of hybrid traditional sci-fi approach meets Dave McKean illustration actually does a fine job of drawing on the feeling set by the book. It is dramatic, but lacks the weight of "classicness" that surround books by such well-known authors as Wells and Asimov. I think I look most forward to this design.
What would I like to see demonstrated in class?
Well, to answer the question of the week, I honestly don't know. I'm not a complete expert with any of those programs, I'm proficient enough for my own purposes, but I'm not trying to say I could do everything in any Adobe program. But when put on the spot, I'm not terribly sure there are that many mysteries left to me at this point, at least none that I can just think of off the top of my head.
When I'm working, trying something new, then I seek out tutorials and demonstrations based on what I know I'd like to put in my work. If I want to know how to create Illustrator brushes, for instance, I'd hunt down a tutorial about how to do that when the need arose.
One thing that is bothering me with InDesign right now though is this: I'm trying to place images from my portfolio into an InDesign file, right? And when I do, they look pixellated in InDesign, but that's okay, I know it's probably the display settings. I know that they're 300 dpi because I've viewed them as such in PSD and other viewers, but when I print, I get these pixellated images. I've tried converting the originals to .tiff, then placing them into the InDesign file, but when I print, they're still as pixellated as they look on the screen. But if I print them from PSD, at the same size, they look fine! I'm stumped.
When I'm working, trying something new, then I seek out tutorials and demonstrations based on what I know I'd like to put in my work. If I want to know how to create Illustrator brushes, for instance, I'd hunt down a tutorial about how to do that when the need arose.
One thing that is bothering me with InDesign right now though is this: I'm trying to place images from my portfolio into an InDesign file, right? And when I do, they look pixellated in InDesign, but that's okay, I know it's probably the display settings. I know that they're 300 dpi because I've viewed them as such in PSD and other viewers, but when I print, I get these pixellated images. I've tried converting the originals to .tiff, then placing them into the InDesign file, but when I print, they're still as pixellated as they look on the screen. But if I print them from PSD, at the same size, they look fine! I'm stumped.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Three Books to Cover
I actually have a wide assortment of books that I might do covers for...I find myself not terribly interested in interpreting books that everyone has read or that are really mainstream. So I'll list some of the more "mainstream" books that I like, but also, some of the perhaps, lesser known.
(Children's Books)
Charlotte's Web by E.B. White (A pig befriends a spider who promises to save him from the fate of most pigs)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl (A poor boy wins a trip to a whimsical chocolate factory)
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (A young girl travels to an imaginary world, and tries to get home)
(Time Travel)
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells (A man invents a time machine and travels to the distant future to discover that humanity has split into two very different species: the childlike Eloi and the carnivorous Morlocks)
Sky Coyote by Kage Baker (Operatives of a far-future company inhabit the past where they seek to preserve a tribe of Native Americans that will be destroyed. The operatives are cyborgs, created by augmenting children from various time-periods--they soon learn that their masters in the future aren't what they expected)
End Of Eternity by Isaac Asimov (Eternity is a organization/place that exists outside of time, and it is staffed by humans who carry out Reality Changes on earth in order to minimize human suffering throughout history. But who is really pulling the strings when the temporal world can be so manipulated? And is Eternity really beneficial for humanity?)
(Examining Good and Evil)
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury (Two boys, Will Holloway and Jim Nightshade, encounter a mystical carnival. But Jim and Will discover that there are dark energies afoot in the carnival, as people in town begin to disappear. This story examines many profound themes, such as how our desires can come to command our lives, age and growth, belief and fear, and viewpoint on life.)
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (During the colonization of Africa, a man named Marlowe is sent into the African jungle to retrieve a esteemed officer who has gone rogue. On his journey, Marlowe comes face to face with the extreme duality of human nature and the depths of evil that man is capable of when social and moral accountability are removed from the picture.)
The Boy and the Dog Are Sleeping by Nasdijj (A Navajo man adopts and cares for a young HIV-positive boy--somewhat interesting because this is a purported memoir that was later found to be entirely fictional and written by white American of European descent...)
(Children's Books)
Charlotte's Web by E.B. White (A pig befriends a spider who promises to save him from the fate of most pigs)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl (A poor boy wins a trip to a whimsical chocolate factory)
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (A young girl travels to an imaginary world, and tries to get home)
(Time Travel)
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells (A man invents a time machine and travels to the distant future to discover that humanity has split into two very different species: the childlike Eloi and the carnivorous Morlocks)
Sky Coyote by Kage Baker (Operatives of a far-future company inhabit the past where they seek to preserve a tribe of Native Americans that will be destroyed. The operatives are cyborgs, created by augmenting children from various time-periods--they soon learn that their masters in the future aren't what they expected)
End Of Eternity by Isaac Asimov (Eternity is a organization/place that exists outside of time, and it is staffed by humans who carry out Reality Changes on earth in order to minimize human suffering throughout history. But who is really pulling the strings when the temporal world can be so manipulated? And is Eternity really beneficial for humanity?)
(Examining Good and Evil)
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury (Two boys, Will Holloway and Jim Nightshade, encounter a mystical carnival. But Jim and Will discover that there are dark energies afoot in the carnival, as people in town begin to disappear. This story examines many profound themes, such as how our desires can come to command our lives, age and growth, belief and fear, and viewpoint on life.)
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (During the colonization of Africa, a man named Marlowe is sent into the African jungle to retrieve a esteemed officer who has gone rogue. On his journey, Marlowe comes face to face with the extreme duality of human nature and the depths of evil that man is capable of when social and moral accountability are removed from the picture.)
The Boy and the Dog Are Sleeping by Nasdijj (A Navajo man adopts and cares for a young HIV-positive boy--somewhat interesting because this is a purported memoir that was later found to be entirely fictional and written by white American of European descent...)
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Advertisements and ME
“How many advertisements do you think you see in an average day?”
Significantly fewer now that I filter my javascript. I don't drive long distances or watch a lot of mainstream TV (more Hulu and streaming movies), but everyone is selling something. Probably between 25-30 ads per day, if you count analyzing design of things in general. One sees ads at school, on t-shirts, while watching TVs. I would say TV itself exists solely for the purpose of placing ads.
“What types of ads have the greatest impact on you, personally?”
I always remember designs that are really flashy or have some pretty motion graphic. I'm totally superficial. You can't support a whole movie on expensive graphics, but you know what? For 60 seconds, it's perfectly effective. I also love ads that don't take themselves too seriously, ones that have a silly song (the Dodge Nitro commercial where the car falls through the earth, Starbuck's "Hank") or which are deeply cynical or dark in some way (numerous pop-tart commercials). I always get a kick out of something innocent juxtaposed with something dark. Commercials with cute animals are usually a safe middle ground, I can't complain about cute animals.
I think commercials that I'm least impressed with are those that present what seem to be some pretty boring situations...office settings (even more depressing because it tries to be funny), random sexy girls (could be so much more clever), or men being henpecked (I don't think there's a single male-geared item that isn't pitched this way--any product can be a temporary escape, kind of a sad reflection on society) And, like most people, I hate commercials that are overly loud or have something obnoxious about them, a crying baby, someone repeating something. Bleh.
Significantly fewer now that I filter my javascript. I don't drive long distances or watch a lot of mainstream TV (more Hulu and streaming movies), but everyone is selling something. Probably between 25-30 ads per day, if you count analyzing design of things in general. One sees ads at school, on t-shirts, while watching TVs. I would say TV itself exists solely for the purpose of placing ads.
“What types of ads have the greatest impact on you, personally?”
I always remember designs that are really flashy or have some pretty motion graphic. I'm totally superficial. You can't support a whole movie on expensive graphics, but you know what? For 60 seconds, it's perfectly effective. I also love ads that don't take themselves too seriously, ones that have a silly song (the Dodge Nitro commercial where the car falls through the earth, Starbuck's "Hank") or which are deeply cynical or dark in some way (numerous pop-tart commercials). I always get a kick out of something innocent juxtaposed with something dark. Commercials with cute animals are usually a safe middle ground, I can't complain about cute animals.
I think commercials that I'm least impressed with are those that present what seem to be some pretty boring situations...office settings (even more depressing because it tries to be funny), random sexy girls (could be so much more clever), or men being henpecked (I don't think there's a single male-geared item that isn't pitched this way--any product can be a temporary escape, kind of a sad reflection on society) And, like most people, I hate commercials that are overly loud or have something obnoxious about them, a crying baby, someone repeating something. Bleh.
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