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As a school assignment at UWS we had to do a book cover for Puffin books.
Citation preview
SKETCHBOOK
PUFFIN BOOK COVER
BRIEF
Design a whole new cover look for The Outsiders, in order
to bring this classic to a new generation of readers, ensuring
that this timeless story remains an integral part of every
teenager’s bookshelf.
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
so dawn goes down a day.
Nothing gold can stay.
-Robert Frost
BOOK SUMMARY
The Outsiders is about a two rival gangs, Greasers and
Socs’, which is actually two classes of society. The Greasers
are of the lower variety. One night when Ponyboy, the main
character, and his friend Johnny are out they get attacked
by a group of Socs’. This is nothing unusual, only this time
things get out of hand. The Socs’ almost drowns Ponyboy in
a fountain but Johnny stops them in a desperate act to save
his friend by stabbing one of the socs to death. They then
flee to an abandoned church and a lot of questions about
life and purpose arise. Ponyboy cites the Robert Frost poem
“Nothing gold can stay”, which has great significance for
the book’s meaning.
The Greasers are a very tight group that others are very
prejudiced against. The book is about friendship, solidarity,
youth and exclusion.
?
RESEARCH
I started of by watching the 1983 film adaptation of the
book. Even though I thought the movie was pretty bad due
to poor acting and faltering dialogue, I tried to look past
that and see the story and it gave me a feel of which type of
story it was. I also read a lot of book summaries.
Then the next step was to just get inspired so I googled
a lot of book cover designs. Old books, teen books,
“50 best covers”, “50 worst covers”, old winners of the
Penguin and Puffin competitions and a lot more always
keeping in mind what The Outsiders was about to se if I
could find something interesting. But while researching book
covers I came to realise that the really good ones are very
context depen dent. There are no special tricks to make a
good cover design but you must find out the essence of the
book, a symbol or metaphor for that and then execute it
with a style that enhances the idea.
According to me, the greatness of the final idea for the cover
depends on how well it’s tied to the book.
INSPIRATION
The 60’s, in which the book takes place, are a very exiting
period for me in terms of design; the aesthetics, the colours,
the movie posters (especially those of Saul Bass), the furni
ture (Verner Panton), the fashion (Mad Men) etc. Not to
mention the music! Short to say I really want my book cover
to reflect the 60’s somehow regardless of the idea I choose
to subconsciously capture the mood of the era in which the
book takes place.
Also, in the 60’s spirit, I’ve been really inspired by the mini
malistic expressions and I really think that will make the
book stand out in the bookstores next to all those mystery
books with almost identical covers.
IDEAS
The comb is clearly a favorite symbol for the Greasers if you
look at different cover designs on the Internet and a symbol
I thought of before even finding examples of it. Not very
original in other words. But for me it’s just an accessory the
Greasers are wearing. If I where to use it I felt I needed to
do something more cleaver with the comb to make it work.
The theme exclusion is something I sort of can relate to in
the sense that I grew up in a suburb to Stockholm and were
therefore always a bit outside from the center where all the
fun happened. Not the same kind of exclusion the Greasers
in the book faces, but still, they do live in the outskirts of
a small city. This made me think of Bruce Springsteen who
often sings about seeing the city skyline and the light in the
horizon. One idea I have is to combine a city skyline with
the comb.
Another idea is to try and illustrate the rivalry between the
gangs using some contrast in some way. I don’t know how
clear that will be though.
SKETCHES
I came about my final pieces just by trying out a bunch of
thing in illustrator. Anything I could come up with really
to se if it sparked something I liked. I do prefer sketching
in the computer and not on paper simply because I’m more
comfortable that way. There aren’t much to say about them
really more than that they led me to the final idea. You could
say it was my way of brainstorming with myself.
To the left is a selection of some sketches.
FINAL PIECE
My final piece is the city skyline of Tulsa, Oklahoma, where
the book takes place and the “sky” is an abstract graphic
geo metric pattern that could be gold bullions or a very warm
sunset. The skyline represents exclusion and living in the
outskirts of both the city and the society itself. The gold or
the yellow sky is a reference to the poem “Nothing gold can
stay” which, as mentioned before, are cited and important
in the book. The contrast between the dark skyline and the
colourful upper part might symbolize the rivalry between
the gangs in the book.
The typography is carefully chosen to enhance the feeling of
the book and the 60’s era. American typewriter was chosen
given that the book begins and ends with the main character
typing the story on a typewriter. The other font is a very
Saul Bass inspired one. I thought it suited the purpose well
as it is a bit rough, as also the Greasers are, and it connotes
in my opinion very much from the 60’s.
This final idea was also very suitable for making the front
and back of the cover connected in an unforced manner.
ALTERNATIVE
The alternative is a little more different than just a red
version of the cover. The city skyline is still there and the
main idea is still the same (see “Final piece”), but instead of
a golden sky with abstract shapes there are quite apparent
running blood. This is clearly a darker more serious version
of my idea. A key scene in the book is when one of the Socs’
gets stabbed to death and blood is the perfect symbol for
death and bad things.
Needless to say I feel that this version connotes a to dark
story. It doesn’t feel like a youth book as much as the other
version and therefore chose that one as my first choice.
!
CONCLUSIONS
This was a very fun and interesting project and the one that
has been the most alike the courses we have taken back in
Sweden. To communicate an idea.
I feel that my covers do pinpoint what I stated for myself in
the beginning regarding style and inspiration and the feel
I wanted for them. However I’m not 100percent satisfied
(are you ever?). I feel that my idea is not as “smart” as I’d
hoped for. I’m used to think around advertisement briefs and
having a huge creative angst that eventually transitions to a
redemptive big idea. That didn’t quite happen here but I’m
still very happy with how the covers turned out.
ANTON LARSSON
GRAPHIC DESIGN & ILLUSTRATION
UWS 2013