Studio Brief 1 - Modern & contemporary design

Great use of colours, purple and red make the book visually pleasing and kind of make the two books uniformed. The block of shape is needed in order for the book to even stand a chance of being picked up in the book shop. The type is lacking potential. The typeface isn't as modern as it could be, but at least the designer isn't using a serif typeface. The layout of the title and authors name is a bit close to the edge of the book, therefore the type can be interfered with by the crease on the spine.

Even know this book is classed as modern, it has an awful stencil typeface. However, the illustrative circles at the bottom fits well with the message. The circles remind me of connect 4, but the title "Intruders" fits well with the circle, as most of the circles are the same colour but then there are the 'intruders' that have been applied in a different, stronger colour.

I absolutely love this book cover by Peter Benchley. The cover reminds me of the poster for Jaws. The use of typography is very subtle but extremely visually effective and creative. Very stripped back design, with not much happening, but just by looking at the colour and the letter "a" you can instantly grasp what book this is. Using the icon symbol of a sharks fin, this has been replicating using the "A" from the title. Using a Sharpe typeface also links in with the personality of a shark. Dangerous and not to be messed with. Everything else speaks for it's self. Blue would obviously will represent the water. However I'm not sure about the gradient? What is the grey meant to communicate? All it's saying to me is that the water is dirty. It possibly could of been used to show the darkness of the bottom of the ocean but there are other colour that would of been more complimentary like dark blue.

What instantly hits me with this design is the fantastic use of negative space. The book is about sex relating things and positions but having a cover like this makes the books seem romantic and very beautiful. The negative space between the black and white, draws away from the rawness and hard hitting visuals that may be slightly inappropriate for some audiences. Staying on the topic of the negative space, the black shapes interacting with the white, makes the silhouettes seems romantic, soft and look similar to heart shapes in some form. Maybe the typeface could of been lower caps. Lower caps would be perceived as soft and a bit more lovable which would link with the theme of the book. However uppercase could of been use to make it visible enough to stand out amongst the busyness.

Contemporary art has become more and more plain and simplistic over the years. This cover, I'm not sure what it communicates without looking further in to the content. This is the problem with a lot of contemporary books. The concept is often over looked over by visually pleasing design. With this all in the mind the book is still stylish and aesthetically pleasing.

Also with contemporary books, people are finding new way of playing around with the product it's self. So making new forms of books by making the front ad inside pages more connected and interactive.

Great example of what i was explaining in the previous book design. Making the book more interactive with the inside. You could even make a book where you might have 50 pages, but you wouldn't even need to open the book to understand the story line.