PUB 331 - Rationale - awdawd PDF

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Project 1.4 Final design rationale

301300355

Aritro Mukhopadhyay

ypically considered a young adult fiction novel, The Book Thief was initially positioned as a historical fiction novel and only later repositioned as a young adult novel. The Book Thief is a tragic story about a girl named Liesel Meminger who is sent to a foster home after her little brother’s untimely death. The book deals with themes such as power in literacy, anti-semitism, allusion to historical events as well as a lot of book stealing. It is a coming of age novel that is based in the setting of Nazi - Germany. The three genre’s I decided to choose are the following: dystopian thriller for a wide audience (fiction), design history book (non fiction) and a children’s book meant for ages 5 and above. The version of the book that I have has the name “The Book Thief ” and “Markus Zusak” is embossed on the cover of the novel and it stands out in relief while the rest of the surface stays flat. The name of the author is written in a hand written typeface with a texture applied on it that makes it look worn out and old. The title of the book has heavy texturing that makes it look like its hand written and painted on. This is a reference to a plot in the story wherein the protagonist Liesel hides a jewish fist fighter in their basement and they rip pages out of Mein Kampf and paint it white and proceed to write their own stories on it. This is symbolic for the narrative. Although this reference can only be understood, after the reader has reached that particular chapter of the story. The book also features the above mentioned hand written pages inside the book itself. The book cover’s background is an image of a finger pushing a set of dominos - referring to the chain of events that influence each other in the book. The image is dominantly yellow and muddy and almost has a sepia tone overall - making the book appear older. Since this book was positioned to be read by young adults (age 13 and above) the book is paperback. A young target demographic is not as comfortable with hardbound as an adult target demographic is as per Angus Philip’s text on “How Books are Positioned in the Market: Reading the Cover”. Although, a hardbound version of the book was made available on the anniversary edition of “The Book Thief ” - specifically targeted towards buyers who wish to buy the book as a present, add to their collection and readers who may have read it before and want to buy a more hefty version to allude to their positive experience of reading the said book. The book is designed to have many short chapters that makes the content easy to digest as it creates an illusion that the reader is reading it quickly - while the story itself is slow paced. Initial research led me to a collection of mass market thrillers which were riddled with classic novels, classic dystopian fiction and literary fiction. I filtered down to dystopian fiction for a mass market audience. That being said the book covers in this genre are directed towards a more mature audience that reads dystopian fiction. This audience may be familiar with dystopian fiction from the young adult genre. The audience includes high school students, university

Project 1.4 Final design rationale

301300355

Aritro Mukhopadhyay

students and working professionals. The book cover is in paperback and is about 4.25 x 6.87 inches in size. These books are small enough to be travelled with and hence will be visible in book stores in airports. From the plethora of themes that the original story provides - I chose to use the symbol of a scythe on the cover. I did so because the book is narrated by death (personified) who visits the characters in the book from time to time. Death as a symbol is very important in the book hence the approach. The typography for the cover is similar to that of Atwood’s The handmaid’s tale because it was inspired by that. I did not use the symbol of a thief or book as that would tread the lines of cliché. The original story doesn't lend to be dystopian but that's also the reason why I chose it to give myself a challenge. The original story has a ton of book burning (books with jew characters were burned in Nazi germany). I could have taken that approach as well. Although in the end I decided not to as it might end up looking like!Fahrenheit 451!by Ray Bradbury which is a more classical dystopian book. In this redesigned book cover the title of the book and the name of the author are embossed with a coating of glossy plastic on them while the rest of the book cover has a matte finish. This conforms with an existing market expectation that provides a visceral experience to the reader. My initial pick for the second genre redesign was mystery. Since mystery genre was too wide and very close to dystopian fiction - I shifted to books on history and typography. These books are under non - fiction educational genre and are specifically aimed towards the discourse community of designers. The books are paperback with 6 x 9 inches in size. The audience of these book covers include undergrad and graduated designers, working professionals as well as students hoping to learn design. There’s also a fraction in the audience who are seasoned designers and would collect specific books from this genre in order to add to their collection. The original story was based in Germany which is the birth place of Bauhaus design school of thought. I embraced that cultural aspect and employed a Bauhaus aesthetic as the cover of the second book cover. In this redesigned book cover the title of the book and the name of the author are embossed with a coating of glossy plastic on them while the rest of the book cover has a matte finish. This book is slightly bigger than the dystopian genre mentioned before and is meant for readers to read in a more stationary setting which could be a library or in the comfort of their home. The third genre is children’s books. These books are paperback and 7.5 x 7.5 inches in dimension. The cover that I have made is meant for kids of and above the age of 5. The book is square in format and is hard bound. This allows the reader to place the book on given surface and read. The dimension and format of the book is meant to be handled by both a parent and the child that is reading it. The illustrations on the book cover is intensionally gentle and simple in nature from the otherwise mature nature of the themes in the book. The typeface used is American Typewriter....