From doing my research so far I have come up with some ideas:

I needed something inspired by Steampunk and the Victorian era that would link with all 3 of the books. These are the links I came up with:

Ann Veronica – She keeps a jar with a dissected frog inside on top of her wardrobe in her bedroom… Although this is not an important piece of the story it is still a detail that will help link this title to the other 2, it is the science connection. This then gave birth to the other 2 ideas for the other 2 book covers…

The Time Machine – This story is about a man who sits at a table having a meal among friends and he tells them that he has found a way to travel forward in time – no one believes him but with a 3 hour time difference inbetween his journey there and back he travels into the future. He meets a girl (alien girl) called Weena and when he finally gets back to present day to show his findings to the dinner table of friends, he finds that Weena affectionately planted 2 white flowers in his jacket pocket… At the end of the story he presents these to the people around the dinner table to prove that he did travel forwards in time.

The flowers in the story are important; they represent love, affection and care between the 2 characters. The flowers also act as a bridge between the present and the future.. without these flowers there would be no proof of his time travelling journey. The flowers show delicacy and a weakness – maybe that nothing is ever guaranteed and that the future is never ever certain, that people are in fact subject to mother nature.

Tono-Bungay – This story is about a potion that was formed as a “cure all” miraculous medicine… in fact it was nothing more than a nice tasting liquid. This is the most creative novel HG Wells wrote. The potion was called Tono-Bungay and In the story it was so cleverly advertised which meant that it was a huge financial success for the character who helped create it.

I would like to create this cover (or create some ideas) around the idea of (the book) being advertised to the reader just like in the story how the medicine is successfully advertised.. however my first idea for now is to do a similar cover to the other 2 titles..

So… What ideas have I come up with so far?

My first ideas from picking out these important key points from the story are to create a set (series) of books based around potion/medicine bottles and bell jars…

• The dissected frog would be in a jar
• The white flowers would be in a bell jar (similar to one that appeared in Beauty and the Beast)
• Tono-Bungay would be in a medicine bottle

Botany and embalming were popular subjects in the Victorian era and these design ideas would reflect that. The three titles would look very similar in appearance to each other and would work as a series.

I also googled ideas around this subject and came up with a Dutch artist called Frederik Ruysch who was known as the “artist of death” he specialised in science, botany and embalming.. He is known for developing techniques for preserving anatomical specimens, which he used to create dioramas or scenes incorporating human parts. I like the details in his drawings and the fact they are hand drawn in black and white.

These are images of some of his work.

I also then had a think about how I could link some Steampunk into these ideas… I thought about running pipes into the jars with gas and then the smoke coming out of the top. The title of the books could possibly come out of the smoke. I would include cogs also.

I sketched some ideas in my sketchbook for this:

I decided to use a different colour for each one: Red for Tono-Bungay; I felt red symbolised blood and very much being alive… this potion was a miraculous “cure all” for all ailments and illness. I decided on green for Ann Veronica because it symbolises the colour of the frog in the jar and I went for Blue for The Time Machine because of the delicacy of the flowers/ nature. Blue represents to me a calmness and the flowers represent love, care and kindness. They would all create a repetition in design and become a series.

I shall mess around some more with these ideas and see what happens next!

What makes good book design?

What makes books timeless throughout the styles and years?

Who are some famous book designers and why is their work successful?

These are all the questions I need to answer to help me effectively with my designs.

I watched a video on skillshare by Chip Kidd, an american Graphic Designer and Book designer about what makes good book design. He shared some of his favourite book covers and then showed some of his work also. He shared tips and pointers; some of which I actually already knew about how to go about designing a stunning contemporary cover.

To my surprise one of the first books on his “show and tell” was actually The Time Machine by HG Wells! The design and cover he shared is a rare edition published by Random House in 1931. The designer was William Addison Dwiggins; I shall admit that before I sat down and read about him and his work I did not know much about this designer who first coined the phrase “Graphic Designer”.

I was shocked at this cover though because I actually thought it was modern! When I realised it was designed in 1931 I was thinking “Wow…. this is what a timeless cover looks like!” I then sat and thought about what made it so timeless… the hierarchy, the contrast of the complimentary bold striking colours, the simplistic serif typeface (I believe he designed this himself!), the image used is stripped back to its simplest form…. It is minimalist. I think it works because it is minimalist.

Something a stranger in a shop told me once during light chit chat when I said I was trying to juggle 20 metaphorical balls all at once!! was to “keep it simple”, life in general.. This rule applies to great design I think.

The great thing about this book is the attention to detail. Dwiggins really pays attention and puts love into all the pages. The cover is a masterpiece in itself but then he goes further by adorning the preface page with illustrations and then the inside covers he illustrates what he believes is what the time machine would actually look like. He goes into radical thinking by creating the Random House publishing logo as part of his illustration; he makes it the house from the story in his illustration.

I am now searching for a copy of this book! I want to own a piece of design greatness! It is a hardback version however; I would be designing a paperback cover. At the start of the 20th century paperbacks were brought in, shortly afterwards Penguin came about and this really saw the rise of the paperback as a “lifelong” book. Books that could be used over and over again and stand the test of time.

He did “show and tell” on a few more book designs and designers. Some of the designers he mentioned that I could look more into are:

• Jan Tschichold – He designed the popular Penguin book covers. Visual hierarchy is everything with these books. The layout is iconic.
• Arthur Hawkins Junior – He designed with Typography – iconically with “The postman always rings twice”
• E McKnight Kauffer – The invisible man – He took vintage classics and put a modern, minimalistic approach to them. He designed mostly posters.
• Miriam Woods – nine stories – although I really do dislike the typography on this!!
• Shirley Smith
• Peter Saville – Minimalism – Designed the Joy Division cover bringing Content and form together.

Where do you start with designing a cover?

I need to look at previous editions of the books I am designing for and see what could/should have been done differently and what has been overlooked. I have to create something that has not been done before; it needs to be timeless and stand the test of style through the ages.

The cover visually tells the story of the book at first glance, so how do you go about knowing what to put on the cover? what images? what pictures?

I have read pages of all the books to try and pick out details about the characters, places in the books, items… anything that is relevant to the overall story that could be used for the cover. As the books are meant to be a series, I also thought that trying to find a link between all 3 books to tie them together would be a good idea; something that all 3 books have in common to use on all 3 to make them a “unit”. The only thing that springs to mind before I do some initial ideas is science, love and war!

Chip Kidd went on to explain a cover he did for Brazzaville Beach in the early 90s. He said that one of the (possibly) least important things in the story (but one that was repeated throughout the story) was the fact that the main character smoked a brand of cigarettes. Kidd has an interest in cigarette packets and their designs so decided to incorporate this into the design. He made the cover of the book resemble a packet of cigarettes, the type that the main character might smoke. I think that this is an example of radical thinking; he has approached it differently, instead of using the most obvious images for the cover he has looked into finer details and used something that might have otherwise been overlooked.

From doing my brainstorming ideas the other day I did write that I had noted Ann Veronica kept a dissected frog in a jar.. I think that this is similar to what Kidd did with BrazzaVille Beach. I haven’t taken an obvious object or being such as an image of Ann Veronica herself, but taken something that tells you about who she is as a character, her interests, the science link but doesn’t directly tell you what the book is about.

Kidd also talked about book covers. The fact that when timeless books are worthy of being classics they are protected by being covered in a shiny, film like protective cover. (Libraries, classic bookstores do it..) He decided to automatically add this value to one of the book covers he designed without it even having to become a “classic”. The book was “The secret history” it added appeal to it because it already looked like a classic.

Kidd talks about “taking homage” basically meaning find anything that gives you inspiration and draw upon it to help you with your designs. I feel I do a lot of this already but it just reiterates for me the importance of noticing everything around me and using it, recording it whenever possible!

He went into art movements of the early 20th century, something else I know I have knowledge of but that I need to look further into. The movements he spoke about were De Stijl, Art Deco, Futurism and Constructivism. Possibly one of the most iconic (for me anyway as a teenager!) was Franz Ferdinand album art which was influenced by this movement.

Here is a little slideshow of books and ideas Kidd touched upon! I really enjoyed the video and I feel like I have learned about designers and techniques I previously knew nothing about.

Having looked into HG Wells who he was, what he wrote and learning a bit more about his life I now need to decide which books of his to choose and design covers for.

I did a bit of brainstorming around some of his books that caught my attention the most.. I brainstormed around the plot of the stories, key words, events or things within the story which may help inspire my designs. I have come to realise that all his books are based around Science, love and war, a lot of them are rags to riches tales which I quite like the idea of.

The books that I took the most interest from were a mixture;

• Ann Veronica
• The Time Machine
• The history of Mr Polly
• War of the worlds
• Tono Bungay

Ann Veronica

Strong, independent, feminist, “new woman” middle class, sufferer, suffragette, 1907, ambitious, rebellious, love, science, black hair, narrow eyebrows, attractive, delicate, feminine features, she has a dissected frog in a jar, a pigs skull on her wardrobe, black shiny covered notebooks, hockey and tennis racket in her bedroom. She owns a red (risque) knee length dress, gold turkish slippers and a pair of (shock, horror!) trousers (controversial for the time!) fancy dress ball as a pirate

Tono Bungay

potion, miraculous cure all, pleasant tasting liquid, no positive effects, ineffective, turns into a formidable fortune, was successful due to skilled advertising and public credibility, most creative novel, science

War of the worlds

aliens, war, panic, mayhem, fire, destroyed, war

The Time Machine

white flower, cogs, time, futuristic, technology, love, science, time travel,

The history of Mr Polly

struggle, depression, poor, middle class, mid life crisis, ambition, changes, unfulfilled, smart, hat, suit

Ideally I wanted to choose books that were published around a similar time era so that they would work better as a set and also because the style and art influences would be from the same eras… however I think I am going to choose Ann Veronica, The Time Machine and Tono Bungay.

I started reading the first 90 pages of Ann Veronica an hour ago to give me a better idea of the plot… Who are the characters and what kind of girl Ann Veronica is. I feel like it is important to go into depth in this research because details make better designs! Knowledge is power! (or in my case knowledge=better design outcomes!)

For anyone wanting a cheeky link to a free online version of the book:

http://pinkmonkey.com/dl/library1/digi496.pdf

I like the fact she is a rebellious, ambitious young girl trying to put her mark on the world. I feel that because I am in a similar situation myself a century later I can try and put a modern take on this!

The time Machine – I have chosen this one as it was his first novel and the fact it is still relevant today – time travelling is still a popular concept today. I felt like with the science and technology background to this I could do a lot with it design wise too. When I think of this title I see cogs and clocks and I got the idea in my head of trying out a futurist style technical drawing of inner workings of a clock as art of the design.

Tono Bungay – This is the title I know the least about; I did look at reviews online though and one really helped me. They stated that the book is basically about a “potion” that was successfully yet falsely advertised and sold as a miraculous-cure-to-all remedy when in actual fact it was nothing more than just a pleasant tasting liquid! This is apparently the most artistic of HG Wells work. I feel like this title gives me more scope for designing more than some of the other titles.

What do we know about these books?

We know that they are timeless classics.. unaffected by time and styles. HG Wells was English and the locations in his books are either real or fictional places in England. I need to combine both of these into my designs to really make them authentic.

As I stated on the introductory page explaining the brief; I am totally unfamiliar with the works of HG Wells. My first steps were to read up a bit about him and find out who he was and what kind of stuff he wrote!

The only title I was familiar with is War of the worlds. Growing up, my dad listened to the soundtrack music to this title (I will explain that a bit more later!) and as a youngster I used to play the piano, one of my exam pieces was to actually play War of the worlds! I know the story is to do with aliens taking over earth etc but apart from that I couldn’t tell you a lot else!

Who was HG Wells?

So.. HG Wells, otherwise known as the “father of science fiction” was an English writer born on September 21st 1866. He wrote several titles many being science fiction but some being social novels which still have relevance today. He was a novelist, teacher, historian and journalist. Wells influenced the exploration of Mars so much so that a crater on the surface of the planet was named after him.

He was a futurist, (which may help me in my designs moving forwards with a futurism influence) he liked to try and predict coming events and possibilities for the future of the earth. He liked writing about recreational war games which then developed into tales about alien abductions and aliens taking over the earth. His science fiction imagined time travel, alien invasion, invisibility, and biological engineering.

His most famous works were The war of the worlds (1898), The time machine (1895) The invisible man (1897) and The war in the air (1907). HG Wells was nominated for the Nobel Prize in literature 4 times.

HG Wells specialised in Biology. His logic and thinking was influenced largely by Darwin. He was also an outspoken socialist and had pacifist views during the first world war. His later works were extremely political. This can be shown in Ann Veronica. He also made reference to lower middle class life with “Kipps” and “The history of Mr Polly”.

Growing up for Wells was a trying time, his parents struggled financially and due to work commitments spent much time apart. As money was short they sent Wells off to become an apprentice draper where he worked 13 hour long days and slept in a dormitory with other apprentices. This would later inspire “Kipp” “The history of Mr Polly” and “The wheels of chance”. He was noticing how wealth and money was distributed along the classes.

He then managed to secure (through the help of his mum) a pupil-teacher position which allowed him to assist in the teaching of younger students. He carried on studying and gained his BA Science degree. When he left school he had no money and went to live with his Aunt, it was while he was there that he took interest in his cousin called Isabel. He later married her but divorced 3 years later. It was around this time he published his first novel “The time machine”.

HG Wells seemed to like the ladies, he remarried again to one of his old students who he fondly named “Jane”. He however had many affairs with many different women he met on his life journey. Some of these women were teachers, feminists and activists.

Wells had a like for art and expressed himself through little drawings and sketches that he would draw on endpapers and pages of his own diaries. They covered a variety of subjects such as politics, literacy and is romantic interests. In 2006 a book was published on “pishuas” which is the name he gave to the drawings he drew about his second wife Amy Catherine (Jane).

HG Wells was also good friends with Winston Churchill up until his death, Churchhill used a line from War of the worlds in one of his speeches about the rise of the Nazis “the gathering storm” he was a big fan of Wells books.

In his last book “Mind at the end of its tether” (1945), he considered the idea that humanity being replaced by another species might not be a bad idea. He referred to the era between the two World Wars as “The Age of Frustration”

Wells died aged 79 on the 13th August 1946 in Regents Park, London from unknown causes.

List of HG Wells fiction novels:

• The Time Machine (1895)
• The Wonderful Visit (1895)
• The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896)
• The Wheels of Chance (1896)
• The Invisible Man (1897)
• The War of the Worlds (1898)
• When the Sleeper Wakes (1899)
• Love and Mr Lewisham (1900)
• The First Men in the Moon (1901)
• The Sea Lady (1902)
• The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth (1904)
• Kipps (1905)
• A Modern Utopia (1905)
• In the Days of the Comet (1906)
• The War in the Air (1908)
• Tono-Bungay (1909)
• Ann Veronica (1909)
• The History of Mr Polly (1910)
• The Sleeper Awakes (1910) – revised edition of When the Sleeper Wakes (1899)
• The New Machiavelli (1911)
• Marriage (1912)
• The Passionate Friends (1913)
• The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman (1914)
• The World Set Free (1914)
• Bealby: A Holiday (1915)
• Boon (1915) (as Reginald Bliss)
• The Research Magnificent (1915)
• Mr Britling Sees It Through (1916)
• The Soul of a Bishop (1917)
• Joan and Peter: The Story of an Education (1918)
• The Undying Fire (1919)
• The Secret Places of the Heart (1922)
• Men Like Gods (1923)
• The Dream (1924)
• Christina Alberta’s Father (1925)
• The World of William Clissold (1926)
• Meanwhile (1927)
• Mr. Blettsworthy on Rampole Island (1928)
• The Autocracy of Mr. Parham (1930)
• The Bulpington of Blup (1932)
• The Shape of Things to Come (1933)
• The Croquet Player (1936)
• Brynhild (1937)
• Star Begotten (1937)
• The Camford Visitation (1937)
• Apropos of Dolores (1938)
• The Brothers (1938)
• The Holy Terror (1939)
• Babes in the Darkling Wood (1940)
• All Aboard for Ararat (1940)
• You Can’t Be Too Careful (1941)

The brief

Your brief is to design a stunning and contemporary cover for one of the 20th century’s most acclaimed authors, HG Wells.

Known mostly for his science fiction writing, HG Wells also wrote social novels that are still relevant today. He covered topics such as the mid-life crisis, class, feminism, materialism, consumerism and love.

Your challenge is to create cover designs for three of his books that work as a set and establish the books as timeless fiction. The books will be published in a paperback format and need to include the title, author’s name, publishers name and trademark. You only need to design the front cover and spine.

Making notes in your learning log:

• Identify the research you might need to undertake and the gaps in your knowledge. Can you identify any primary research that will help you? What resources could you use to undertake secondary research?
• Use the mind mapping technique to explore your keywords. Explore both extremes of obvious and radical solutions to the brief. What is the most obvious way of responding to it and what radical creative solutions can you come up with?

• 

How do I feel about this brief?

When I first sat down and read this brief my original thoughts were that it is well out of my comfort zone and that I had absolutely never heard of the author in my life! I have obviously heard of War of the Worlds but apart from that I was absolutely clueless! I do not read much myself (apart from design books and magazines) and the fact that the books are from the late 18th century- early 1900s put me off as my initial thought is that they would be outdated, old fashioned and written in “old English” (the grammar would be old words!) and not with the present times now at all.

I have already conducted a bit of research before going into too much yet. My first questions to myself were “Who is this guy? and what books did he write?”

I looked into the obvious being – The war of the worlds, Invisible man and The Time Machine. Having also looking at what other students on my course are doing, most of them have looked into the same books. Me being typical me :p felt like I need to step outside of my comfort zone and look into other publications. I have looked at a few titles such as Ann Veronica and The history of Mr Polly and have read a few pages of each to get a feel for the style of writing, the era and the stories.

I have also brainstormed ideas to give me direction for my next moves around this brief.

Research I shall undertake:

• Gaps in my knowledge: Research more into HG Wells. His history and background might help me in the style of my design outcomes.
• Research into HG Wells titles: What books did he write? What eras are they from? What are the stories and what subjects do they explore?
• What are the art and design movements of the time the books were published?
• What typography was being used around the time the books were published?
• What book covers are being used on present day HG Wells titles?
• What typography is being used on present day covers?
• Who reads HG Wells titles? Who or what are the target audience for these books?
• Who designed the covers for his existing books?
• Who published his work?

What primary research can I conduct?

• Take my own photographs of existing books and book covers to get an idea of what designs are currently being used
• Interviews with people who are interested in his work to see what they would want to see on his book cover designs
• Research into other competing titles; what designs do they have which makes them appealing. How are they a threat to HG Wells titles?
• Research into modern titles of the same genre of book

What secondary research can I conduct?

• Search the internet for HG Wells info, bio, book list, plot of books etc
• Reading the books
• Watching film adaptations
• Research into contemporary/modern design
• Research into design eras around the time of the book publication dates.
• Research into typography from the dates of the book publications and also look into modern contemporary typography of today.

What restrictions or implications do I need to take into account?

• Cost factors; Restriction of colours to keep printing costs down, what materials are being used? What weight/quality of paper/card?
• What is the size of the book that I am designing for? What is the standard size of a paperback novel?
• How many pages does the book have? – this might deterine how big the spine of the book is.