Book Cover Redesign Sketches
Hmmm . . . what book should I choose to reimage its cover while staying true to its brand/identity? That was a very difficult question to answer. After much thought and consideration, I chose two different books for a little variety to formulate the six sketches.
The first book that I chose was "It" by Stephen King, also known as the "King of Horror". I read the book many years before the movie came out. The description on the back cover will be something like this:
The story tracks the harrowing ordeals of seven children from Derry haunted by an evil entity adept at morphing into manifestations fueled by their deepest fears. This sinister being, most often assuming the guise of Pennywise the Dancing Clown, feeds upon the vulnerability and fears of its favored prey of young children.
This book is definitely not for the faint of heart. Although, in 1986, Publisher's Weekly listed "It" as the best selling fiction book in the United States. The following is an image displaying his initial book cover, accompanied by the first three of my six sketches intended to recreate the cover for Stephen King's "It."
Sketch #1:
In this first sketch I stayed with the black background with the bold, thick white lettering for Stephen King (on the front and spine). The title, "IT" is shown as the scratched red logo with blood dripping and will fade into the black background. I used a close-up of Pennywise's face fading into the darkness, featuring his eerie, glowing yellow eyes, to evoke a sense of chilling horror and intrigue. The red balloon is floating up out of the drain with rain in the background while Georgie's boat is floating toward the drain. On the back, I added one of King's quotes from the book, "We all float down here." to accompany the balloon along with a summary of his novel.
In my next sketch, I'm using the same creepy red "IT" logo as the first sketch fading into the blackness and into the red balloon. I used another image of Pennywise peering out behind the red balloon with his ghastly teeth starting to show through his chilling smile and fading slightly into the black background.. The author, Stephen King, will be in red, bold letters (on the front and spine) using tracking and leading to create the block effect of his name on the front with his first name in a smaller font equal in width to his last name in a larger font. I used another quote from the book, "Can you smell the circus Georgie," along with the Derry Circus sign with a large red balloon floating behind it and Georgie in his yellow raincoat staring off, almost in a trance.
In this sketch, I used the font and layout of the author and title on the original book cover displayed above for the front cover and spine. I added Pennywise's evil eyes and teeth faded in back of the title as well as a red balloon faded behind the author's name. I incorporated the background of Georgie's paper boat, SS George, floating down the road in the rainstorm with Pennywise's claws grasping at the boat (which I also added to the spine to capture that bone-chilling effect). On the back cover, I added a couple more quotes and and a brief summary all in white contrasting the blackness of the background that echoes the chilling theme of the story within, inviting readers to immerse themselves in a world where shadows lurk and mysteries abound.
Sketch #4:
The second book that I chose was "13 Reasons Why" by Jay Asher. My son was assigned this book to read in high school. He requested that I read to him, because he enjoyed the manner in which I read. As my son drifted off to sleep while I was reading, I found myself captivated by the story and continued to read on. The description on the back will read:
Hannah Baker, a teenage girl starting as a new sophomore student at Liberty High School, struggles to adapt and adjust to her new school environment. A series of misfortunate events take place where she is sexually labeled, abused, and assaulted. Thus, begins her downward spiral where she sees no light leading her to planning and taking her own life. In preparation of her suicide, she records a set of tapes for the 13 reasons (persons) that led her down her dark path. Each of the 13 people must listen to their story and role played in the tragedy on tape before passing the tapes to the next person in line.
The story touched my heart and soul personally as I had drifted down that dark, dreary path in high school and also lost one of my close cousins to depression and suicide. The following is an image of one of the original book covers to compare to my last three sketches:
Moving on to my next set of sketches, I decided to use the image of the symbolic tape against a dark background to highlight the title while adding, "Are YOU one of them" in between the pulled tape. The word "YOU" is slipping away as did Hannah. I added the 13 question marks in white to the front cover because of the multitude of "why's" and unanswered questions lingering in the narrative, waiting to be heard and unraveled. For the spine of the book, I separated the author and placed the text horizontally rather than vertically like the tile. I added the beginning of her tape, "Hey, It's Hannah . . ." on the spine as well to trigger those emotions of hearing someone's voice after they are gone. The quote on the back, along with the summary, extends the narratives theme of insatiable curiosity, delving into the pursuit of untangling the mysteries of the unknown.
Sketch #5:
We have all written or read the writings on the bathroom walls in school (or elsewhere). After watching a bathroom scene, I felt it would be unique and appropriate to use each of the 13 names from the tapes in the form of the "13" in the title on the bathroom wall. I added some graffiti to the wall in black, including "Hannah was here" written in red with the letters "here" fading away, symbolizing her loss. I used the same spine as my previous sketch only adding the "play" symbol. I had a little fun with the play on words in the quote, "You can't rewind the past.", which is shown rolling like the rollercoaster of life on a piece of audio tape with the words "rewind the past" going backwards.
The scene of Hannah and Clay sitting on top of the movie theater, the Crestmont, where they worked inspired the image on the front cover where I incorporated the title using cloning and blending techniques in Photoshop (changing the "i" in thirteen to a "1", the "e" to a "3" in reason, and the "y" is an upside down question mark) into the signs. "Thirteen" will be in a bold white block style font (similar to the font used for the Crestmont sign in the movie) and "Reasons Why" will be black against a white background. I added the quote, "At that moment everything was perfect." to engage the readers to contemplate the thought of how the story could have turned out differently. I also added the "1" and "3" in the author's last name, Asher. The quote from Hannah on the back cover was her "peace out", her "no return ticket," which I symbolized in the red "ADM1T ON3" theater ticket below the summary.
The Gastalt Principles that I used in each of my sketches are: Proximity (using close space to separate sections and text), Figure/Ground (using background images and foreground text), and Symmetry and Order (creating visual flow and balance). Some of the tools that I will be utilizing in Photoshop to create visual effects will be guides, layers, text and image tools utilizing opacity and blending as well as tracking, leading, transforming, rotating text, cloning, etc.
Sources:
Wikipedia Contributors (2024). "It (Novel)." Wickipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. Online at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_(novel)
Odom, Dan Kessell (2024). "The Creepiest Pennywise Quotes From the IT Movies & Miniseries, Ranked." Screenrant. Online at: https://screenrant.com/pennywise-it-creepiest-quotes-ranked/
Dongre, Shreya (2024). "What are some good quotes from the series 13 Reasons Why?" Quora. Online at: https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-good-quotes-from-the-series-13-reasons-why
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