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Life isn’t all ha ha Hee Hee templated

I wanted to see how my final design would look placed onto a book cover. So I took my image into photoshop and added it onto a book cover template. The look is very effective and I believe the layout of the cover make it look more professional and ready to be used on an actual book.

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Penguin book cover process and initial thoughts

The first sketch was initially supposed to be just one of the main characters with a circle on her chest with her heart inside. I wanted to put a cage around her heart to show her naive attitude within the book and the fact that she doesn't explain her feelings to her family.

I added the colours red and gold as that's what brides wear in traditional Indian weddings. After finishing the book I decided to use all three of the characters as the highlight of the book is the friendship between the main characters.

I used google reference photos of henna tattoos to design my own henna tattoos for Chila the middle character. Most brides have henna on their arms hands and a lot of other places for their wedding and I wanted to add as much of the appropriate referencing to the culture.

After adding all the circles within their chests I realised it may not be the best option to use this method to highlight their individual personalities as people viewing may get confused by what the hearts mean. After thought, I added text in their faces and added a word that related to each of the characters within the beginning of the book such as trapped, innocent and I was going to use the word naive for Chila and then liar for the end character. However, as I began to add more depth to the piece and considered colour palettes for the cover I wanted to add facial features to each character as I felt like adding them with their eyes closed would deliver the message I wanted to convey.

After showing peers my designs with and without facial features the most liked design became the one with the faces. The clothing is very simplistic and the patterns are on a very low opacity so by adding more depth to the faces the expressions become more of a main focus to the piece. I made sure I added features to each character that would make then stand out. On the character who is supposed to be a mother I added a slightly messy hair style and a stain her garment. For the new bride I made her look young and added more accessories onto her. Then for the character who doesn't want to be apart of her culture and runs away format I gave her long flowing hair to show the freedom she wants and minimal accessories.

#Penguin Random House #penguindesignaward #bookcoverdesign #meera syal

Life isn't all ha ha hee hee

After finishing my front cover I needed the spine and the back cover to be coherent to the rest of the piece. I used the mirrors on the back after removing them off the front as it was too crowded on the front cover. I wanted the characters to be the main focus on the front cover so with the back I added the reviews in the mirrors and a large mirror for the overview of the book. I used the same font and also added a drop shadow so the words would be legible. I used the orange as the main background colour as I love the way the reds, yellows and maroons make the piece full of life and colour which fit the Indian theme perfectly.

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Penguin Design Project

Life isn’t all ha ha hee hee - Meera Syal

For the penguin design project I have chosen to do the cover for life isn’t all ha ha hee hee which is a highlighting a friendship, a marriage and a career of three different friends. It highlights diaspora culture and I have started off by researching colour schemes and patterns that relate to the culture of the book.