Cover Sleeve Developments

Ways of presenting the key, does it need to be included in the design or does the ambiguity benefit the design?

When showing people my work generally people liked the symbols in the background but didn't know the reasoning for them. Having a key would be a way to inform the audience of the reasoning behind the symbols and provide more context.

The layout however was inspired by @madebystudiojq's branding for Content. The simplicity of the design allows the shapes to be the focal point, and a definitive separation of text through the use of a bar allows for a clear hierarchy to be established.

I experimented with altering the colour of the text describing the words to further, having some a lighter shade of grey to develop this hierarchy further, but due tot he colour palette of the shapes it became rather distracting and felt unnecessary due to the other change (smaller point size). 

Initially thought of having the information presented in a way that could be slipped into the packaging or on the reverse of the back page of the book, however this was too simple and didn't communicate the design well. It came across as more of an after thought rather than a considered piece of design.

After talking to my tutor about the project, the suggestion of incorporating the information onto the reverse of the band containing the book was something to develop further. Also linking to research on dust covers, and how extra information is often provided on an inner slip.

Issues with this was the scale, by having the band wrap around the book a single time meant the type was extremely small (3.5pt) and ultimately illegible. By having the band wrap multiple times it allowed for the text to be larger.

When thinking of the printing to have something print double sided it can't be any bigger than A3 (42cm) so there was a limit to the size of the text, again when tested it was rather small so a minor alteration to the leading of the text allowed for it to be at 8pt but printed A3 so it is legible. 

The final design for the inside is 42cm long and will wrap around the book multiple times. The covers will be an embossed symbol and on the outside of the wrap will be those symbols printed in colour. 

What to do next:

• Test double sided wrap around book to decide placement of symbols.
• Text embossing of coloured paper to see if it works.
• Develop glyphs or symbols for the front cover of the books