book cover assignmentkelsey rooney

Beginning

The objective of this assignment was to create a book cover that complements the tone of Chip Kidd’s The Cheese Monkeys.

Upon listening/reading to the book, we were told to write a reaction explaining our perception of the tone of the book.

This book has a lot of different directions and is fairly chaotic. I want to portray the anxiety that Chip Kidd expresses in his writing and experiences. The whole book had me in this uncomfortable, on-edge feeling. I liked the way that Chip Kidd portrayed the school as being pretty much insane. I really like the idea of chaos within structure - the structure being the institution and the chaos being his experiences. Those are the main tones that I got from the book. It’s definitely a unique book, that jumps from one crazy experience to another. It’s something that made me appreciate the book. I don’t think I’ve ever been so engaged by an account of real life events. I want to create a cover that will catch your eye upon first looking at it. Something that is simple, and unexpected.

inspirationMy inspriation is drawn from the “hand-crafted” look. I really was drawn to the covers that had elements that were drawn. I liked the raw quality that it gave off, and I thought that would have really alined well with the tone of chaos and having a “crazier” look.

Sketching

Refinement: Going digital

THECHEESE MONKEYS

two designs?

Two designs?

Choosing the finalDeciding between two designs was probably one of the toughtest parts of this process. I has created two really strong designs, both of which successfully portrayed the book’s tone and drew from my original inspiration. The second design with the monkeys was something that occurred during the sketching process. It was an image that, while it didn’t go along with my original tone for the book, was still applicable.

I was in a bit of pickle.

I printed both options for the critique, hoping that would give me more of a direction as to what I should choose - “let the people decide” so to speak... During the critique, I received mixed reactions to both. Some liked the first one, others liked the second. Overall, there was more of a pull to the first idea - explaining that it went along with my original idea and tone. This definitely helped in my process while deciding. After critique, I just sat at my seat, staring at the two designs - still torn. Eventually, I decided to go with the popular vote to move forward with the first design.

After finally choosing this final design, I was pretty happy with my choice. I felt that it was good to go back with my first initial idea. Sometimes, your gut reaction to things in the creative world is the way to go!

front matter ExerciseFor the front matter of the book, I wanted to directly reflect the typefaces and imagery from the cover. I think that would enhance the experience of the reader and help convey the intended tone - set the scene.

I created front matter material for both of my designs. This eventually played as a deciding factor into choosing which design to move forward with. My first design’s front matter material was generally more cohesive and refined, which I liked a lot.

front matter final

front matter final

front matter final

final design