* scan in images
The main takeaway from the talk we had with Aimee and Beth was starting with typography instead of the illustration to make sure it works as a whole unit instead of two separate pieces jumbled together. It was also helpful to know what to stay away from when thinking about designing the book covers, as certain colours would look too murky. After making a few notes on the subject topic and from the talk, I decided to begin by looking at pre-existing book covers for some inspiration before I did further research or even began to make thumbnails. |
c. 1550 Italian Silk dress
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To appeal to a more modern audience, I also took the time to look towards more updated versions of Romeo and Juliet's clothing - attempting to find common ground between the old and new. Although the doublets are different over time periods, they have the same defining features across different eras.
As the play was written and preformed in Elizabethan times, I specifically looked more towards 16th Century clothing. Medieval dress
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c. 1550 Italian Silk dress
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L’Elegant, 1857.
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Set in 1830s London, I decided to look as men's fashion around that time period and just after to try and determine what the defining features of 1800s clothing was. Frock coats, tail coats and top hats were key elements that continued throughout the majority of the era. Although appealing to a modern audience, the style of clothing and shaping would be able to better help differentiate the well respected Jekyll from the supernatural ghostly Hyde |
1790 - 95 Tailor Coat
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Cutaway Tail Coat, 1805-1810.
(Mint Museum) |
Unlike the other two books, the main focus is not going to be reliant on clothing. Instead setting and character.
Although clothing wouldn't play a large part, I looked at 18th century fashion, as well as early 18th century fashion for some inspiration. Steel engraving for the frontispiece of the 1831 revised edition of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, published by Colburn and Bentley, London
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For my Jekyll and Hyde type, I struggled with finding a correct placement for it. There were so many words but not a lot of space on the page. I came up with the solution of skewing everything off slightly - making titles smaller and connectives thinner. This worked well to give an organised chaos to the title without it being unreadable.
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Romeo and Juliet as a title was easier to work with, as the R and the J interlocked nicely when written in cursive. From feedback with inkymole (Sarah) she suggested that I thicken up the type to make it more readable at a smaller scale. (Amazon test)
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Frankenstein as a word was difficult to work with. It was a long word that couldn't be split up. I also didn't want to over complicate it as the image was busier than the other two. I decided to use the advice Sarah had given and use traditional ink work to create my type.
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