Identify the research you might need to undertake and the gaps in your knowledge. Can you identify any primary research that will help you?
I know what contemporary art is, but I would like to delve more into what is contemporary design for book covers.
I don't know HG Wells, so I will have to read about him and his books
I’m not a big science fiction fan, so I don’t know too much about it
I don’t know what a set book cover design is
I’m not familiar with Paperback format
I don’t know who are the publishers of his books and what is their trademark
What resources could you use to undertake secondary research?
mostly internet, read his books summaries.
I know what contemporary art is, but I would like to delve more into what is contemporary design for book covers.
I searched for inspiration and information about contemporary book covers. I found that it is mainly matching the design to something relevant for nowadays. It could be the change of a more digital design or colours, or an updates point of view or it can even be only by changing of a typeface - something that can be even almost unnoticeable to the unpracticed eye.
I also searched inspiration for creative book design -
I don't know HG Wells, so I will have to read about him and his books
I started off reading about his biography on wikipedia, and then searching about his best and most known books. I understand he is a political activist and a social critique and had a lot to say ahead of his time - what can easily make him and his books timeless, and probably got him the publicity he deserve.
When I first read this exercise there was something very obvious about his writing and it posed straight into my eyes - feminism, consumption, love, materialism. all together gave me a lil clue that he was a women and “simple pleasures” lover. Something drifted me that direction, and of course I wasn’t surprised to find an article called “The scandalous sex life of HG Wells”.
'I have done what I pleased," H G Wells once wrote, "so that every bit of sexual impulse in me has expressed itself. I am a very immoral person. I have preyed on people who loved me.”
"sex is as necessary as fresh air”
With the novelist Elizabeth von Arnim, he enjoyed such energetic sex that they broke her hotel bed twice
I also really like his approach to life and to society -
"If the world does not please you, you can change it," he observed in his novel The History of Mr Polly. "Determine to alter it at any price, and you can change it altogether.”
“we are always getting away from the present moment”
Since It was so obvious and attracting for me to delve deeper into his romanic and sexual aspect of writing - which is derived from his personal life - I was looking for his books that are talking more obviously about Love, Women, Relationship and Sex.
This is how I found -
“Love & Mr. Lewisham”, “Ann Veronica” and “The Passionate Friends”
From reading the description of each book, I started having some ideas in my head about what would I like to do as a set design.
I’m not a big science fiction fan, so I don’t know too much about it
from reading about Wells’s unique way of being a milestone in history of science fiction, his ability to make sense into the nonsense was standing out.
“According to James Gunn, one of Wells's major contributions to the science fiction genre was his approach, which he referred to as his "new system of ideas".[45] In his opinion, the author should always strive to make the story as credible as possible, even if both the writer and the reader knew certain elements are impossible, allowing the reader to accept the ideas as something that could really happen, today referred to as "the plausible impossible" and "suspension of disbelief".While neither invisibility nor time travel was new in speculative fiction, Wells added a sense of realism to the concepts which the readers were not familiar with. “
“He conceived the idea of using a vehicle that allows an operator to travel purposely and selectively forwards or backwards in time. The term "time machine", coined by Wells, is now almost universally used to refer to such a vehicle.”
I don’t know what a set book cover design is
I found amazing information, explanations and examples about book cover set designs. it was fascinating to see the ways it is possible to link a group of books into something complete such as a puzzle pieces, and aligned spine, minimal approaches and colours and patterns.
I think the most interesting one in my eyes was the puzzle pieces so I chose to challenge myself with this format.
I’m not familiar with Paperback format
From a quick search I found out a paperback book is something I am familiar with but just didn’t know the name of.
“A paperback is a type of book characterized by a thick paper or paperboard cover, and often held together with glue rather than stitches or staples. In contrast, hardcover or hardback books are bound with cardboard covered with cloth.”
I don’t know who are the publishers of his books and what is their trademark
Ann Veronica - Publisher T.Fisher Unwin
The Passionate Friends - Publisher Harper and brothers
Love and Mr. Lewisham - Publisher Penguin Classics
For the matching look and because most of his books were republished by penguin classics I chose to use it as the publisher and trademark.
Use the mind mapping technique to explore your keywords.
social novels
still relevant today,
mid-life crisis,
class,
feminism,
materialism,
consumerism
love
timeless fiction
Explore both extremes of obvious and radical solutions to the brief;
what’s the most obvious way of responding to it and what radical creative solutions can you come up with?
I think that the obvious way to respond to it would be to do something with the heart, because we are talking about love and relationships. It could be like 3 different illustrations of the heart, or maybe the same illustration in black and white and then in each cover it would have different colourful drawing on it.
another way would be to use the chemical structure of Oxytocin (for female) and Vasopressin (for male) which is released in the brain during having sex. Then use typeface inside the chemical structures, since they are also very big.
The last way I could do it, is a bit more creative and radical. From the mind mapping there were few keywords popping up in my eyes -
Sex, Romance, Erotic, Female body, Yin, Feminine energy, Moon, Passion, Lady, Expensive, Space, Free Love, Breaking paradigms, Pleasure, Promiscuity, Glamorous.
All those shouted very strongly I have to use the female’s body, Naked. It should be representing the women as a goddess, as something very tempting but mysterious, breaking the modesty and putting it out there in the face of society. The glamorous and space fell into the same idea of using space as a background. Galaxy represent to me the face HG Wells is in the first place - a science fiction writer, and it looks expensive and glamorous at the same time. I was really impress with the idea of making a puzzle pieces set design so I was thinking to use the female’s body, as 3 parts, laying down, in space.
For the galaxy picture I used a picture I took in Sumba island in August. It was the first time I have ever shoot the stars, so it could be better but I reduced the iso noise on photoshop.
I started looking for naked nymphs paintings, I was after a specific posture of the women, as the drawing I did, I wanted the women to lay down, naked, and have her head looking up with her profile facing us.
It was harder then what I thought but I found Jhon Reinhard Weguelin whom have loved to paint laying nymphs and naked or semi naked women in general. He created some scandals with his art too in his time. I looked for hours until I found the perfect drawing
I placed the woman painting on the galaxy and divided it by 3 to create the puzzle
Since I chose - “Love & Mr. Lewisham”, “Ann Veronica” and “The Passionate Friends”
I read their book description and decided which book deserve which part of the women body. Ann veronica is very erotic and rebelling, it was even banned from libraries when it just published and created a big sensation about women position and ideas.
It was demanded to "give" her the torso and breast.
Love and mr.Lewisham is basically about a sweetheart lover who twist Mr.Lewisham's head. Women are capable to twist heads even just with their pretty face or eye gaze, or hair and lips - That is the reason in conservative countries women have to hide their hair and sometimes even their lips. That made me decided that book should have the head of the women.
Last but not least, The Passionate friends is a book about sex and erotica. I decided to give this book the pelvis part of the women and a couple of her fingers to emphasise that erotic touch and mystery into it.
Reflection
in this exercise, I had to continue a family-type work as I did on the first assignment. This time, it was adding to learning about book cover designs and how to create a design series.
It was really eye-opening to me and I enjoyed developing ideas and exploring the work on photoshop.
I really see how my skills on photoshop develop and in this case the Lasso tool work.