New book mock ups

more responses from studio's for DC

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest re-design

I have designated today as my last day on the cover designs for this brief. I have spent today refreshing myself on last week's designs, and after feedback from Si Scott on Thursday and Andy Lodge today, I have made some decisions about the final resolutions. The one that I had been struggling with was the cuckoo's nest brief. I had two solutions, each with their separate qualities and flaws. during and and my discussion we brainstormed some themes from the book that I had not investigated, such as being trapped, isolation, and the idea of 'the odd one out'. I have chosen to try to communicate this using a bird pattern with one bird either segregated or in a different colour.

replies from emails for dc publication research

more feedback for dc publication..

Emails to studios for context publication

These are the e-mails I have sent out to specific studio's that use illustrated lettering within their work.  I tailored each one to the specific studio, mentioning specific work of theirs that I was referring to in terms of type.

When you make the decision to use illustrated lettering in your designs do you have somebody in house who does it, or do you outsource a lettering artist?


When/If you do outsource a lettering artist, would you feel more confident about using a designer who is represented by an agent rather than one who isn't?


And finally, what is the best piece of advice you could offer to a typographic illustrator who is planning to go freelance in terms of approaching studios for work?

          

Emails to designers for context publication

These are the e-mails that I have sent out to freelance lettering artist with just three questions about their practice :


How important for a freelance illustrator is representation from an agent?


How do you keep your work looking fresh, interesting and individual when there is so much competition and imitation in the industry?


And finally, what is the best piece of advice you could offer to a new freelance illustrator?


I have tailored each e-mail to the independent designer.

First reply :

email image

I created this image to insert into my e-mails to designers and studios to make my messages seem more considered and to help them stand out from the more generic e-mails from other students.

close up's of new spines

Book covers for print

These are my 5 book covers for print + 1 alternative cover for one flew over the cuckoo's nest. I am still deciding which works best and might print both initially.

Inkling by Wacom experimentation

Today I had a play with the new 'Inkling' by Wacom, which is essentially a device that allows you to draw onto paper with the pen which contains a biro nib. You then plug the clip into your mac and it brings up your sketches. It's amazing how you can create new layers while you are drawing, enabling you more editiing capabilities than when you draw normally onto onesingle sheet of paper and then scan it in. It works really well at creating vector or pixel files of your work. Curved lines work best, while more angular sketchy lines come out a little bit disjointed and don't give the effect that I often try to achieve. I think in many ways this is a tool that could save me time scanning and tree's in terms of paper. However, a lot of my work requires different weights of line used together, as well as different textures. I have set ways of creating artowork where the scan itself and the way that I scan it play a large part in the process and cannot be deducted (e.g. scanning my work at 600dpi to maintain or improve line quality when rescaled up/down.)

Overall I would say that it is fantastic as a tool, and I am keen to try and use it in my working process where possible, and then make an informed decision as to whether it's price (£150!) is worth the time that it could save me!

designs in print....

I printed out my modified covers to check how they come out when printed. The white areas that look great on screen where they are back lit, do look a little lost on paper. I am either going to use a more off-white/taupe kind of colour or print on antique coloured stock when I print on Friday/Monday.

Timetable from now until the end of time

Two covers to decide between....

Re-working the type for 1984 cover

After printing the cover for 1984 I decided that the watercolour texture of the initial type worked better than the flat colour I used for the new type so I decided to merge the two styles :