I wanted to look at an artist who was visually impaired, yet was still able to create art. This notion was inspired by the book Blindness by José Saramago in which the inhabitants of a city suddenly loose their sight to an unknown illness after which inevitable chaos ensues.
The techniques used by Rachel Gadsden were ones to be truly celebrated as she is an artist with a visual impairment that limits her sight, yet is still able to create amazing art. Her drawings are dynamic and made with a freedom that she perhaps wishes she has. The colours are rich and used expertly; utilised to help build up the character of each piece and making each one individual.
Despite being able to appreciate the work of Rachel Gadsden, I had to address the target audience for this project. Someone picking up a book titled 'Blindness' was likely to be confused by a bright, expressive piece because although this is what is conceived by a blind person, it doesn't fit in with the conceptive sense of darkness and confusion. This idea would also tie in well with the story of the book in which the city descends into one filled with panic at being robbed of their sight.
I began generating ideas in my favourite way - by creating a mind map. These allow me to explore all possible ideas and make links between certain elements through visual means rather than writing in a list format. I tried to keep with the concept of using monochromatic tones such as black, white and grey to convey the mood of the book.
I found the portfolio of a graphic designer named Levente Szabó who also created a cover for Blindness. His designs were gorgeous in a simplistic way, using the impact of colour and shape to create a dynamic cover that would be picked up from shelves. His designs inspired me to consider the use of shapes more when brainstorming for this project and I feel that this is definitely reflected within my final image.
The design process involved me sketching different shapes and drawings mainly in black and white. I used materials such as acrylics, ink, markers and fine liners to experiment throughout the process which I found also aided my flow of ideas.
The image below is the final book jacket design, featuring the back, front and spine.
These were my two slight variations on the front cover of the book. The first one features a drop shadow and a slightly transparent top layer which was again used to relieve the harsh edges of the white type. I seriously considered using the first one however I felt that the tone of the white created by making it more transparent wasn't used elsewhere on the cover and therefore didn't fit in very well. I also played with the drop shadow by removing it, but I felt it raised the lettering from the page more which was effective in making it stand out more.
The two images below were my original ideas for the front cover. I found that the problem was the Mac I was using as I'm usually used to my own PC with a graphics tablet, and Adobe Illustrator was still foreign to me. This meant that I created this image on Photoshop; a factor that meant the lines weren't smooth, and the text slightly unusual dimensions. Despite Photoshop being a valuable tool to any graphic designer, it does have it's limitations and I feel that a better knowledge of other programs would have been necessary to make this graphic to a standard I was happy with.
I originally designed this without the grey circle in the middle of the eye, and I find that throughout a design process I tend to fiddle around on Photoshop and change minor things. An example of making small changes was the drip of blood on the second image that I felt would emulate the pain that the characters in the book went through. Ultimately, this original idea was a little sloppy to carry forward as a final idea so I began playing with the word 'Blindness' until I reached my final idea.
The final cover was one I was very pleased with both visually and conceptually. I chose this format for the text because it resembled a chart to monitor someones vision which fit in very well with the theme of sight loss in the book. The lettering is nicely centred in the fact that I chose to go with the concept that less is more. It sits in the middle of the page without being imposing and also requires some thought on behalf of the viewer in order to make sense of the letters that are placed in a non-conventional layout.
I spent a long time playing with the text's position and this idea really came about from altering layers and typefaces. If given more time I would have chosen a different font as Orator used here had the tendency to blur on the curved edges which made it look slightly less professional. This is a font i'm comfortable with using which is why I applied it to this book cover.
I began generating ideas in my favourite way - by creating a mind map. These allow me to explore all possible ideas and make links between certain elements through visual means rather than writing in a list format. I tried to keep with the concept of using monochromatic tones such as black, white and grey to convey the mood of the book.
I found the portfolio of a graphic designer named Levente Szabó who also created a cover for Blindness. His designs were gorgeous in a simplistic way, using the impact of colour and shape to create a dynamic cover that would be picked up from shelves. His designs inspired me to consider the use of shapes more when brainstorming for this project and I feel that this is definitely reflected within my final image.
The design process involved me sketching different shapes and drawings mainly in black and white. I used materials such as acrylics, ink, markers and fine liners to experiment throughout the process which I found also aided my flow of ideas.
The image below is the final book jacket design, featuring the back, front and spine.
These two designs for the back of the book show how simply altering the transparency of an element throughout the design process could made a difference. The one on the left is the final image whilst the one on the right is the initial idea. I decided to go with the grey one instead of the white because after setting the transparency to 82% I chose to use this same figure throughout the grey aspects on the cover such as the drop shadow for the text on the front. I thought that the light grey was a little less harsh than the white which was incredibly stark against the black background.
These were my two slight variations on the front cover of the book. The first one features a drop shadow and a slightly transparent top layer which was again used to relieve the harsh edges of the white type. I seriously considered using the first one however I felt that the tone of the white created by making it more transparent wasn't used elsewhere on the cover and therefore didn't fit in very well. I also played with the drop shadow by removing it, but I felt it raised the lettering from the page more which was effective in making it stand out more.
The two images below were my original ideas for the front cover. I found that the problem was the Mac I was using as I'm usually used to my own PC with a graphics tablet, and Adobe Illustrator was still foreign to me. This meant that I created this image on Photoshop; a factor that meant the lines weren't smooth, and the text slightly unusual dimensions. Despite Photoshop being a valuable tool to any graphic designer, it does have it's limitations and I feel that a better knowledge of other programs would have been necessary to make this graphic to a standard I was happy with.
I originally designed this without the grey circle in the middle of the eye, and I find that throughout a design process I tend to fiddle around on Photoshop and change minor things. An example of making small changes was the drip of blood on the second image that I felt would emulate the pain that the characters in the book went through. Ultimately, this original idea was a little sloppy to carry forward as a final idea so I began playing with the word 'Blindness' until I reached my final idea.
The final cover was one I was very pleased with both visually and conceptually. I chose this format for the text because it resembled a chart to monitor someones vision which fit in very well with the theme of sight loss in the book. The lettering is nicely centred in the fact that I chose to go with the concept that less is more. It sits in the middle of the page without being imposing and also requires some thought on behalf of the viewer in order to make sense of the letters that are placed in a non-conventional layout.
I spent a long time playing with the text's position and this idea really came about from altering layers and typefaces. If given more time I would have chosen a different font as Orator used here had the tendency to blur on the curved edges which made it look slightly less professional. This is a font i'm comfortable with using which is why I applied it to this book cover.
Below is a GIF I created as part of this particular workshop. I thought that it would be easier to animate the eye rather than the text because I work better with images, and the number of possibilities with the eye was greater. I essentially took apart the image and just animated the small elements such as the blood, text and eyelid.
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