Responsive: Penguin

After being briefed on this module, I was really apprehensive to start. I have never entered my work in a 'competition' before, therefore because this is foreign to me, I was nervous about even looking at the briefs. One thing that did stick out to me however, was that the teachers told us that the animation students were allowed to enter illustration competitions and visa versa. I thought this would be a great opportunity to work on position, colour and style a bit more, because I feel like i still haven't found my own one yet.

Also in that lesson, I overheard someone talking about Penguin having a brief. Because I am a massive book lover (I read at least 2 books a week!) I couldn't stop thinking about this competition, and I kept wondering if it would be possible for me to even make one book cover, let alone three!

Nevertheless I went on their website and pondered the three briefs. To summerise, Penguin want us to create three front, back and side designs for three different books. These books come under separate categories, so the following books are; 

- A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (Fiction) 

- How To Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran (Non-Fiction) 

- Emil and the Detectives by Erich Kastner (Children's).

I mostly read fiction novels and I do like non-fiction as well, so I think these will be great challenges to take on, however the children's cover I think will be much harder for me because I don't have any younger siblings/cousins, and I don't read children's books so I have no experience on what they like. This does not stop me however, for seeing this book as the most exciting one to take on and I am going to use colour to play with my strengths! 

I also went into WHSmiths and looked at the Penguin section. I noticed that they have such a variety in covers, some more iconic than others because of the different editions (vintage, modern, library, etc). The ones that stand out to me, are those that are vivid and exciting. There are a hundred black and white books out there, so I am thinking for this brief I really want to challenge the boundaries and go all out there, because people do judge books by their covers, and that is what make them look inviting and appealing sitting on your own shelf.