Saturday, 26 November 2016

Penguin Brief - Inspiration Book Cover Designs

Noma Bar - Book cover designs
Avinoam Noma Bar, is an Israel-born graphic designer, illustrator and artist. His work has appeared in many media publications including: Time Out London, BBC ,Random House, The Observer, The Economist and Wallpaper. Bar has illustrated over sixty magazine covers, published over 550 illustrations and released two books of his work through Mark Batty Publisher: Guess Who - The Many Faces of Noma Bar in 2008 and Negative Space in early 2009.

Inspiration 01: Haruki Murakami Book Covers by Noma Bar

As Haruki Murakami is one of the most popular novels to read, I wanted to research and investigate more about the illustrative style, as it's minimalistic, simple, clever concept fits so well with the themes of Murakami's writing.

Murakami's work has a sense that something has been lost or hidden, what is real and what is not...

Therefore to match this playfulness for the covers, the  Random House creative director Suzanne Dean commissioned Noma Bar whose powerful graphic illustrations cleverly utilise negative space concealing secondary images and illusions. Noma's illustrations were then screen printed by hand to give them a personal and softer edge.


Here are some images of his book cover design work: 


Why did Noma use this type of illustration style?

There are his answers during an interview with Ego-creative: 

The jacket layout, with the typography, colours and the important circle device was supplied by the publishers so I just had to concentrate on the illustration. I then worked like I tend to do, sit in Highgate Woods and sketch as many ideas as possible - the peace and quiet helps me focus. Once I felt that I had enough ideas I would come back into the studio, scan or photograph the sketch and then trace them with the computer. Concepts then went to the publisher and they made their selections.

These pieces have a different flavour to my other work, a more ‘normal’ illustrative approach and a bit darker in tone. I often liken my work to music: you start with a basis of notes and lyrics but you then can play it with different instruments and the same music will sound different.

Hebrew is my native language so I am used to communicating with symbols - I just took that idea and applied it pictorially.

Jeff Kinney - Diary of a Wimpy Kid Book cover design
Diary of a Wimpy Kid is a satirical realistic fiction comedy novel for young adults written and illustrated by Jeff Kinney. It is the first book in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. The book is about a boy named Greg Heffley and his struggles to fit in as he begins middle school.

Jeffrey Patrick "Jeff" Kinney is an American game designer, cartoonist, producer, actor, movie director and author of children's books including the Diary of a Wimpy Kid book series. He is also attributed as the creator of the child-oriented website Poptropica. He also appeared in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid films as Holly Hills's father. Kinney was born and brought up in Fort Washington, Maryland, United States.

Interview with Jeff Kinney based on the book
I define wimpy as powerless. I think lots of kids in Greg’s age group know that they don’t have much control over the course of their lives.

My family has a real culture of retelling stories. It started with my grandmother who would tell the same exact stories again and again and again, but we'd always indulge her and enjoy the stories as if we were hearing them for the first time. And now today I still call my siblings and we rehash these old stories of things that happened to us as kids and I think that that's really helped shape the Wimpy Kid books. A lot of my family's stories have kind of made their way sideways into my books.

I think in my own family, my nuclear family, we're really carrying on this tradition, this oral tradition of storytelling where we're telling the same stories about family members, about ourselves, and it's a lot of fun. I think it really creates a nice family bond.



Andrew Bannecker - Book cover design
Andrew Bannecker is an American artist-illustrator with a warm and charming take on the world. He is an expert colorist and manages to imbue even people-less scenes with emotive power. Slightly nostalgic and ever fresh, his work has been recognized by Communication Arts, American Illustration, The Society of Illustrators and the One Show among others, and he was included in Luerzer's 200 Best Illustrators in the world. He's also been featured in books such as Illustration Now, Coca-Cola 125th Anniversary and Creative Inc. and has been showcased in exhibitions of note around the world.

Book Design Cover for Hector and the Search for Happiness


As I have use Andrew Bannecker as an inspiration to my previous work, I believe it will be appropriate to use him for this brief. His illustrations convey what attracts the child eye, this is through the colours he uses. They are very vivid, bright and colourful especially when he uses a combination of watercolours and photoshop in his artwork. 

This is demonstrated through the use illustrations and colours of his work of designing the theatre poster Roald Dahl's Matilda. I believe this design work style is suitable quality for a children's book cover for the brief that I am commencing. I also admire the type of typeface or font he applies on his design work. 








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