Book in Context

Putting my book cover in context of a book shelf and also buying online at Amazon.com. 

In progress cover

after reworking the back I finally came up with something that I enjoy. changes to come...

Book in context pictures

The following pictures are possible "book in context" pictures where I can place my book along side of others. (taken at barns and nobles)

In Class Work Time

Today I brought in pictures to work on my design after going to many different stores I only found one that actually had what I was looking for. This made working today very difficult and eventually I came up with the design below. It just doesn't work with my cover. I'm going to find time to take more pictures and maybe try a different idea of the doors open instead of the aisle. 

Back cover sketches

My two ideas for the back cover are to use the aisle sign seen in grocery stores with the information of the book written on (sketch above) or to continue the idea from the font and show the doors opened with just a black space behind with the book information in there (below).

For the spine I think I want to keep it simple and black to break the covers up since they are not continuous. 

A&P cover first draft

I took many pictures of different doors around town and finally came across this one which I thought would work best for my cover...

... added with some texture in photoshop,...

... an A&P sign I created in illustrator from my sketches,...

... and my drawing of the bow tie...

...I came up with this finished product.

2-15-12 Sketches

new possible design concept... striating everything out?

sketch of the bow tie that I'll put under the author's name. I'm thinking of adding color by hand... possibly watercolor? just to give it a little extra something before I put it into the design. I also don't want it to be a vector image. I like the vintage look I can get from drawing it by hand not in the computer. 

2-13-12 sketches

today in class I worked on sketches for the book cover. In the top corner you can see my overall idea having the doors (grocery store sliding glass ones) with the bow tie on the ground. For the title I wanted to play around with the old A&P signs. I have many different variations and then I started just focusing on the variety of "and" sings I could think of that also reflected the time period of the store. 

Type Images

These are just a few images I found online or new and old A&P store signs. I'm thinking of adding some of these typography elements into my book cover design. 

I also didn't know much about what A&P was (when I first read the story I didn't even know it was a real store). Looking up the A&P supermarket I found that it started in 1860 with only five stores. It grew very quickly to be the largest food retailer in America by 1930. It was as well known as McDonald's or Google is today, and considered the "Walmart" of the time. It started as a tea and coffee retailer in New york city and then began to grow from there soon becoming a self serve supermarket. Their decline started in the 1950's with the expansion of new, larger supermarkets. They have been struggling ever since to keep what little stores they still have starting a reconstruction plan in late 2011 in order to emerge from bankruptcy. Today there are 338 stores still in business mostly around the East coast in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. 

Verb Images

Using the verb list and also imagery from the short story I read (A&P) I created new images meshing two things together with a verb. In the top of this picture above, I started with the images Bow Tie and Apron and rearranged them, stretched, magnified, and adapted them. The bottom half of the page is the images Bow Tie and Store then combined, magnified, and exploded.  

For the second page I started with bare feet and bow tie then shattered, modified, magnified and melted them. The bottom half is then Oaky Hair and Bathing suit. They are magnified, rearranged, combined, and reversed. 

This last page consist of the images cash registers and apron. they are contended, adapted, rearranged, and reversed. The lower part starts with a bathing suit and the number three checkout line. I then magnified, combined and rearranged them. 

This exercise helped me see numerous variations that I could use for my book cover. Although some of them were silly and impractical, it still gave me an idea for maybe something else that is more interesting. 

action verbs group work

My drawing of words based on group members short stories combined together in different ways

Summary of "A&P"

It's just another day working at the A&P store for Sammy when three girls walk in, not so fully dressed. The store is close to a beach, but a good enough distance that when three girls walk in wearing only bikinis, there is a distraction. Sammy is entranced by all of them, but especially the one who held her head the highest, leading the other two behind her. Sammy watches them circle the store, entranced by her beauty, when they enter his line to check out, he can barely react. Then the manager finally notices the girls and makes a fuss. It is unacceptable for them to be dressed like that in the local A&P dressed in only their bathing suits. Making the pretty girl blush, the manager tells them to not come back like that. As they leave Sammy finally speaks up and tells the manager that he has no right to talk to those girls that way and he quits. With that he throws down his apron and bow tie and exits the building. Once outside he can not spot the girls and comes to the realization that he actually just quit his job. A silly thing for him to do, only because he couldn't get the picture of the pretty girl blushing out of his head.

Summary of "Black Elvis"

Black Elvis is trying to become somebody in this world. Playing on his beat up guitar old Elvis tunes at an open mic night regularly. It isn't until a new face comes into the bar that he realizes how poorly his act really is. The Korean blues singer knocks Black Elvis out of the water in talent. Black Elvis is then unable to follow this performance and chooses to sing a song for a well known citizen who died the night before. His act isn't good, but the idea of singing Amazing Grace to honor everyones friend is what gets him the applause. After his performance he talks to the Korean man about his performance and advice. It becomes about his act and how he wants to go to memphis and become an Elvis impersonator. The advice of the other singer is to stay away from Memphis because there are already tons of Black Elvis'. This discourages him and when he gets home his wondering thoughts lead him to talking to the women who died the night before asking why he would sing a song to her when he didn't even like her. He then notices two boys outside making fun of him spray painting his picture on the ground, laughing. He doesn't believe in himself and can never go anywhere until he does.

Summary of "Bullet in the Brain"

What goes through your mind in the last moments before that bullet going trough your brain completes it's deed. For Anders, an unexpected bank robbery changes his life in an instant. It is a normal end of the day at the bank, crowded with people trying to make that final transaction of the day. Anders, comments seem to get away from him with two ladies until two robbers enter the bank. They are the new target of Anders smart comments and it's not taken well. With a pistol under his chin Anders makes the comment that sends the bullet through his skull. It is in these last moments before the bullet completely takes over that Anders has time to think of one last memory from his life. Out of all the moments that would seem to stick out as the last thing you think of, he picks a moment from his childhood of simplicity. Playing baseball with some friends, the smells, the bugs, the colors and the saying "short's the best position they is."

Book Cover Design Research

Our assignment for this week was to go into a book store and find interesting book cover designs. I found many more then the 3 that we were required to find, these are just a few...