Following on from the discussion of George Orwell’s novel 1984, look at the covers for Margaret Atwood’s equally dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), in which a woman finds herself surviving inside a harsh American fundamentalist society, that sees women’s roles as subservient cooks, matrons, and mothers. Alternatively, you can pick a different book to… Continue reading Exercise 4: Designing a cover
Category: Part 2
Exercise 3: Book designers
Undertake a combination of library and internet research into the following designers, identifying a number of book cover designs for each. Reflect on their conceptual and/or expressive approaches to design. Write a very brief description of your selected cover designs and a brief overview of the designer – try to focus on keywords rather than long… Continue reading Exercise 3: Book designers
Research Task: Paper and Bookbinding
Further inform your understanding of paper and bookbinding by reading pages 165–180 of Alan Pipes’ chapter ‘ On Press’ available as a downloadable resource at http://www.oca-student.com/ Collect lots of different paper samples, and assemble these into a standalone book, or integrate them into your sketchbook. See this as the start of an ongoing resource that… Continue reading Research Task: Paper and Bookbinding
Exercise 2: Paper and binding choices
Analyse the binding style of the books you’ve collected. How does the book block adhere to the cover? How does it adhere to the spine? Is it stitched or glued? You’ll notice that in case-bound or hardback books, the sections, or signatures, are sewn together and glued to the spine. Paperback books, on the other hand, are more… Continue reading Exercise 2: Paper and binding choices
Research task: Book terminology
Familiarise yourself with the terminology used in describing the anatomy of a book and write some brief notes in your learning log on how the various structural elements could be modified to reflect the book’s function. The following componenets are listed: head, spine, tail, pages/leaves, book block, board and cover. As I am currently reading Book… Continue reading Research task: Book terminology
Exercise 1: The function of books
Identify a range of books that have fundamentally different functions in terms of how these books are engaged with – how they’re held, where they’re read, by whom, and for what purpose. Try to look at least six books, but you can extend this if you want to. The differences between these books might be… Continue reading Exercise 1: The function of books
Daniel's OCA Blog: Book Design 1 