johnson+-+book



I feel like these covers are good in terms of the elements and principles of design. For //Lockdown// I believe it is a good cover because it utilizes emphasis, space and color. There is emphasis because while most of the cover is in green in black the one eye of the gas mask is red along with another character in it. This goes along with color because the color red is a color the eye is automatically drawn to so it helps to stand out against another color. And there is also the space factor where the gas mask figure is filling the space with little negative space around it. Now for //Empire State// I believe it is a good cover because of the shape, line, color, and balance that it has. First there is the shape where it has simple looking shapes but they all go well together with the bits of detail that are put into these simple shapes. And that goes along with the lines as well because the way the cover is designed the lines are leading on in towards the middle of the book. There is balance because everything points to that middle and with the building in the middle there are two characters on either side along with similar framing to help balance it out. And finally there is the color. Red is a bold color so people will automatically be drawn in to that and log with the black figures with some grey colors it provides more interest to it. Lastly I believe //Dream London// is a good cover because of the color, texture, and space of it. First there is color. As I've been saying the red color draws people in against another simple color such as they grey scale that is the rest of the cover. Next is the texture. With all the little details in the cover along everything, buildings, bridges, the water, there is so much to look at that a person will take time looking at it and might want to read it. And next is the space. there is negative space on on the top which helps to keep the eye towards the bottom and middle of the cover.

I feel like these covers are good in terms of typography and the illustration that they have. For the first book the typography goes well with it. The book is set in a prison and you can tell that it is probably in that setting because the typography is something that could be associated with that place. And with how the illustration is designed with the dark specks and the white specks around the type it goes hand in hand. With the second book part of it is said to be set in the 1950s and the text on the cover matches with the kind of text the 1950s would of had. And with the shapes of the illustration of clean lines and a long look to it the typography works perfectly. And finally for the last book there isn't much typography and it is a simple font but it works. Because there is so much going on in the cover not much text is needed but the way the text looks goes along with the monster or dark like theme that may go along with the book and what is illustrated on the cover.

All three of these books are able to draw a customer in. It is the interesting looks and unique way they are presented. They also used their elements and principles smartly on what could attract people in and make them want to buy the book. I have read //Lockdown// and I plan to see if //Empire State// and //Dream London// will be good books as well because they seem interesting from the looks of their covers.

[|Lockdown] [|Empire State] [|Dream London]

The book that I'm doing for Design is a book called //The Resurrectionist: The Lost Work of Dr. Spencer Black//. The first half of the book is telling the life of Dr. Black set in the late 1870's in Philadelphia. He studies at Philadelphia's Academy of Medicine and comes up with a hypothesis that maybe the world's mythological beasts are part of human evolution. The first half is practically a fictional biography of the man starting from his childhood all the way up to his disappearance. The second half of the book is what's called //The Codex Extinct Animalia.// What this is is full anatomical renderings of different mythological beasts. Extremely detailed bone and muscle structures of different creatures like Mermaids, Minotaurs, Spinxes and many others. It gives a short description of each before showing each one of their structures that are also labeled. I chose this book because I thought it was an interesting book detailing the life of this strange man. I also really liked it because I haven’t seen very many books that have complete skeletal and bone structures of mythical creatures. I find them very fascinating to look at even if one doesn’t read the first half of the book before hand.

The design that I’m planning on doing is trying to stick with the who skeleton theme. Since most of the book is comprised of the skeletal structures within and is based around what Dr. Spencer Black was supposed to doing and discovering with these detailed structures. I’m mostly keeping it black and white but with a few colors if it fit wells if I go with putting the moth in it or not. I haven’t fully decided yet but it will mostly be black and white with screened back skeleton images so that they aren’t so bold yet they are still interesting enough from far away to get someone to come and look at it.