This is the back cover I have made for the Penguin Books brief based on Adrian Mole. The entire cover design contains a lot of text and I wanted to make sure the text acted as part of the illustration as it would cover a large portion of the cover itself. I wanted the text to reflect the narrative of the boom but had to keep in mind the purpose of the text. It needed to be clear and communicate the relevant information. The book covers purpose is to grab peoples attention and communicate the tone and story of the book instantly. The text is additional information including part of the book and a number of reviews. Working on this cover presented me with problems I have not had to tackle before. I don't normally work with text or have such a large number of criteria to adhere to when creating illustrations. This was a difficult process, I had to plan more precisely to incorporate each individual element like, text, logo's, barcode etc. I felt like I was trying to cram information in a small space without and freedom. I read an interview with Jon Klassen where he talked about illustrating books as problem solving, he said that you use symbols to communicate with the reader and the better you become as an illustrator the more complex messages you are able to communicate. I need to treat briefs like this as a learning exercise as I want to illustrate children's books and designing covers will be part of my practice. The process of dealing with constraints will help me to refine my illustrations and become more efficient in communicating through illustration.
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