My project for course: Design Thinking for Book Covers and Visual Concepts
My project for course: Design Thinking for Book Covers and Visual Concepts
by Ian Koviak @ian_127032
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For the final project, I focused on the cover that seemed to have the most commercial value and told a bit of a story.
The idea is to capture the feel of India, with color, texture, and other visual elements. I wanted to use a hand in the gesture of a blessing as a focal point and build upon that in more detail. I added an Indian paisley design to the hand and added some elements of the story, mainly location as well as the horse. The boy in the story grows up being told he is the 10th incarnation/Avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu in his form as Kalki (and end-days avatar). His parents raise him in an ashram in India where he "heals" people. His parents dye his skin blue to add to his "divinity" as many Hindu gods are blue. as the story progresses, the lie unravels and as he reaches maturity and travels to New York he is finally able to come into his own and slowly learn to embrace selfhood and rediscover himself in more authentic ways.
I did play with colored dye and water and photographed things for some of the earlier concepts, but in the end I composed this entirely in photoshop with numerous stock images.
I feel the cover is both intriguing and thoughtful in telling the story and capturing the overall mood.
I tried to carry over the art/feel to the spine, back and flaps while giving ample room to the ad copy.
There is an element of faith unraveling, and ego/sense of self, dissolving.
Please let me know if there are any adjustments and other feedback/criticism that can improve this overall idea.
8 comments
I just signed up for the course to follow your creative process. 😀
@enricoalbis Hello! It's a really well done course. Catherine is a great instructor and her work flow is very methodical. In my personal work I definitely use a version of this process but I picked up so many good details that I'll definitely use going forward. Looking forward to seeing your results. Enjoy! Hope you had a nice Holiday season.
@ian_127032 I had already decided to sign up for the course when I had time, but when I saw that you had presented your project I immediately signed up so much I was curious to see how you had developed the process, I am very admired by the quality and quantity of ideas you can develop.
I had a great Christmas time with my family. I hope you also had a good holiday season.
This is absolutely beautiful and captivating and right on theme. Excellent work!
@workwith_leannepayne thank you so much! It was a great project to work on. The course reminded me of a lot of smaller steps that I should be including in my work more often.
Such a beautiful final project, Ian! I love how the entire design feels cohesive, while providing different little gems as you travel over the package— like the skyline on the back flap, and the lovely watercolor texture transition between the yellow and blue sections. The color palette is really strong and makes this cover stand out, whether on a shelf or online. I also love how you thought about textures throughout, from the type to the illustrations.
The concept of identity really comes in loud and clear with the elements you combined, and the layers of the design hint so beautifully at the layers of this novel. It makes me want to pick up the book!
Thank you for sharing, and for all your amazing work throughout the course!!!!
@ccasalino Wonderful! Thank you for the very kind feedback. I look forward to seeing all the other work from everyone taking the class. You did a really great job clearly explaining the steps to bring out the most from a manuscript and capture the books voice. I've already been applying many of the things you went over.
@ian_127032 You are most welcome :)
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