The Outsiders Book Cover Ideas

This competition appealed to me as it is for creating a book embrace for a children'southward book. I feel that this is something that I would enjoy doing if pursued as a career, then this would be a skilful competition for me to do for this module. I would like my design to be a successful piece for my portfolio regardless of winning or not.

1st Prize

The winner of the Puffin Children'south Prize will be invited to spend four weeks at Puffin in the design studio on a work placement, working with Puffin Art Director Anna Billson on alive briefs. The winner will likewise receive a greenbacks prize of £1,000.

2nd Prize

The winner of the 2d Prize will receive a £350 cash prize.

3rd Prize

The winner of the 3rd Prize volition receive a £250 cash prize.

This information I gathered from the competition website and the brief. It is to design a cover for the book 'The outsiders' By S.Eastward. Hinton

What the judges are looking for:

We are looking for a hitting cover pattern that is well executed, has an imaginative concept and clearly places the book for its market of both teenagers, to option up and purchase for themselves, and adults to purchase for them. While all elements of the jacket need to work together as a cohesive whole, remember that the front end comprehend needs to be able to work on its own and be eye-catching within a crowded bookshop setting as well as on screen at a reduced size for digital retailers.

The winning design will need to:

have an imaginative concept and original estimation of the cursory
be competently executed with strong employ of typography
appeal to the broadest possible audience for the volume
show a good agreement of the market
have a point of difference from the many other book covers it is competing confronting
be able to sit on the shelves of a supermarket or ebook store as easily as it sits on those of more traditional bookshops

To research ideas for designs for this book cover illustration I beginning listened to the audiobook and and then watched the 1983 moving picture.

I collected a few images of past book cover designs that designers take created so I can get a experience of what has already been considered and which images I believe to be successful.

Most of these designs have themes that directly relate to the culture/plot of the book. Such as the greaser lifestyle which is represented by combs and switchblades. Combs are not really mentioned much in the book, however, a bract has a direct reference to the storyline, then has more relevance to the book.

My favourite of these images is the paper skull (Above) as it references the age of the boys in the book past beingness lined paper found at school, every bit well as suggests the thought of death existence a theme.

I want my blueprint to take a similar effect of having more than than ane reference hidden inside the pattern.

In the brief, information technology is specified that the judges are looking for a blueprint that is original and would stand up out on shelves and as thumbnail images for eastward-books. I can use these nerveless designs as a basis for what not to do, and generate my own ideas inspired past these themes and layouts.

I as well gathered some screenshots of parts of the movie that I found to be symbolic or had practiced visual factors to them. I did acquit in mind that there are some scenes in the film not mentioned in the book and vice versa, so I was careful to only employ scenes that I knew to be in both.

These images (Higher up) are where Johnny stabs a Soc with a switchblade, killing him and start the intense and exciting parts of the plot. I think the claret in the fountain is particularly good imagery.

These images are of where Ponyboy and Johnny run abroad to the church to hideout for a week when waiting for the character Dallas. The boys talk almost how beautiful a sunrise is, having never seen one before. I retrieve this is another instance of skilful imagery or colour themes that I could utilise.

This scene is where they come dorsum to the church building to find it on fire, earlier they rush in to save some school children, another important scene for the book every bit it leaves Johnny paralysed, eventually killing him.

I constitute that these images of the gang fight were also quite significant and could exist turned into artwork quite well and would reflect the themes of the book quite well.

The book starts with the line " When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the moving picture house, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home. "

I made a fiddling listing of the imagery and ideas that stood out to me the most, and decided to do some sketches to see what ideas I would then generate.

I drew this sketch of how I imagined a archetype 'greaser' to await, with the greased back, blackness pilus and leather jacket. I like the style i created it in by drawing a crude design with a castor tool, then rubbing out any unnecessary lines or marks, giving more than particular as well every bit making the image look like a lino print.

I besides thought the church building where the two boys hibernate out was an of import scene and should be considered as something for my concluding design. In one case again, I like how the fashion adds to the eeriness of the drawing.

The next object I drew that I felt was another intrinsic part to the story was the fountain the Johnny stabs someone at whilst defending Ponyboy. I think that information technology volition appear to take another layer of interest if I colour information technology in and have the blood in it.

I also did some rough sketches of objects used throughout the book, however, knifes aren't original as lots of the other book I researched turned out to have knifes as a focal indicate in their design.

I likewise drew a rummage, as they are symbolic of the gang culture from that time and is easily recognisable.

I copied the sketch of the church and drew a stylised background, including the sunrise/sunset that is mentioned in the book past the boys whilst at this location.I feel that it works well and is a pattern that is powerful and works well aesthetically. I took the colours of the orangish from the screenshot I took from the film of the sunrise.

I went bcd to my design of the fountain and added claret in the water. The claret would be very watered downwards, so i wanted to steer clear of using just a nighttime, blood red every bit the colour, and so i tried using this orangey pink. I experience it works well and has a good lot of symbolism and depth to information technology.

This was some other idea i had for the volume encompass, perhaps a mitt wielding a bract, showing the moment right earlier Johnny stabs the Soc, the main turn in the plot.

I liked the idea of the church building existence the focal bespeak of my book cover design and wanted to re draw it in the same mode as before, only larger and with a flake more personality.

My idea is to have the church in the foreground, having a sunrise backside it, creating light to come from the windows and door effulgent out towards the viewer. I want the light to likewise exist ambiguous as to whether it is light coming from backside the edifice, or whether information technology is burn down coming from within the building. As another major scene in the story is where the church is on burn down and he boys get dorsum inside to rescue some immature children.

I wanted to exit smoke out foof the blueprint, every bit that would signify that the calorie-free is intact the fire, I desire it to purposefully be left open to interpretation. Perchance the reader volition begin to understand the different layers of the ideas backside this pattern as they read further into the book.

For the beams of light I practiced what looks all-time on illustrator and found that shapes fabricated transparent look nicest and quite interesting to look at. This too allows me to change the background colours at will without changing the multifariousness of colours used in the light.

I coloured the image to be at nighttime time, so that the light coming through could exist seen as the sunrise coming up from backside the hill shining through the windows.

I and then added light in the windows to improve the pattern, calculation the likelihood of the light actually being from a burn inside the building. I besides added a few layers of light behind the church as the light coming upwardly over the hill, yet could too be burn down and light on the other side of the building. I am happy with this pattern so far, and will now look into utilising the design for use on a book cover and in the template provided.

I and so considered text and the typography I desire to use for my volume cover design. I thought about the book and storyline and decided that information technology is quite a dark and sad story, but also appeals to teenagers. This meant I wanted to accept a font that is scary merely also very legible and correctly portrayed the type of book it is.

I am happy with these outcomes for the book title and author proper noun. I think they stand for the target audience of the volume as well as maintain a legibility.

I then looked at the required data that has to go on the design. This includes the front text, spine text and a blurb. too as whatsoever information that is already on the template as part of the image.

I began to position the paradigm and typography on the template and chose a unlike groundwork colour. I wanted to betoken more that the background is a sunrise. I took the colours as a colour catch from a screenshot from the film, in a scene where the boys are looking at a sunrise. I feel this works improve than the dark blue groundwork I had at first.

I and then added the blurb text and looked at positioning and the best placement for the iii sets of texts that had to sit there. I remember that I organised them well. When considering my analogy more, I decided to change the windows and door to white, this was indicating more that there is potentially a light source inside the building.

Whilst experimenting, I inverse the outline of the image to white to test if it would work well. Many reasons stopped me from keeping this, such as information technology clashing with the white already within the edifice, and needing outlines on at to the lowest degree one side of each window, as well as it just doesn't look correct.

My next step in altering this blueprint was to change the ground to blackness. I feel that this works much better equally information technology lowers the color palette, making the design expect much more than professional in my opinion, using only black, white and shades of orange.

Whilst rearranging the blurb text, I constitute I had a lot of spare space on the back cover, and it is unremarkably common practice to have an image or continued image on the back encompass, and so I looked over my designs and found the knife and comb, I placed them together to symbolise the culture of the gangs in the volume. I think this works well as it is not likewise focal just as well has meaning.

Some other development in my blueprint was where two of the beams of light crossed over made an extra bright area, just above the clock tower, but I changed this for realism and also for the sake of it beingness too intrusive to the design.

My next footstep was changing the colour of the background, I felt the orange was as well bright, then I changed it to a more than pastel orange. I feel this was successful and makes the design look better and more professional. I also added a bird in a place that I felt needed something to pull the image together. I think it looks good, but I will think well-nigh this further towards the terminate of the design.

This is my last edition for the submission. I feel that it has developed well and that I have faced the bug raised as I have built up the design. Some of the issues I faced were the light beams coming from the building, it was difficult to position them so that they would expect realistic and natural. I wanted in that location to exist a bit of visual dispute every bit to whether the light source is coming from backside the church building or from within it. This is considering of the 2 scenes at the church that I wanted to illustrate in 1 paradigm, giving ambiguity to the design and also to reveal the possibilities to the reader every bit they read on.I also decided to add together an orangish glow coming from inside the church building, I feel that this adds to my desired consequence and is successful.

Other last infinitesimal changes that I wanted to make include the flooring being turned dorsum into black. I feel that a smaller palette brings the design together more and I am more than comfortable with this design than with the green. I am happy with the font that I created. I wanted it to announced creepy only not to appear that the book is a horror story. I feel I have achieved this and that information technology gives off the feel that I wanted.

My adjacent footstep was the submission of the artwork, I gathered the data from the website then demand to utilise the changes to the file to be able to send it.

This is my final design that I submitted.

Overall, I call up this piece is a success and is useable in my portfolio. I believe that it shows a amount of skills, from lighting and atmosphere to diversity of styles and layout.

I am pleased with my ideas for this pattern. I wanted it to be an cryptic setting, every bit idea it could announced to exist either a burning church, or a church sitting in front of a sunrise. I experience that i translated this thought well and that information technology is an even better design for those who are reading/have read the book and sympathize the setting and ideas behind the design. An consequence that I found whilst making this design was that the light was difficult to position and that the beams were bad-mannered to angle. However, I feel that from my last illustration involving the Ronin monster, that I accept adult my skills in lighting and shadow, this helped greatly with this project.

If I were to change something, it might be the bargain of the sky. Although it was a piffling bland and is flat colours, in that location is not much else that I wanted to add to it. I was debating with myself as to whether it would look good to have a sketchy result, after trying, I feel that this may have been the meliorate determination of the 2, merely still not completely pleased with it.