Asking For Feedback From Strangers

 In my one to one with Mat a few weeks ago, he suggested that I post some of my work onto some Maya forums if I have time to get even more feedback from people who have the same experience as him and a lot more than me! I was really skeptical of this idea to begin with because I get nervous showing my work to my friends let alone a bunch of strangers. But after the final crit session and getting some positive feedback as well as some advice, I thought I had nothing to lose and decided to go for it! Plus I may have gotten some extremely useful and helpful tips! 

I went to 'CGSociety' and found a section that looked appropriate to post a new thread. I chose the 'WIP/Critique: Animation' section and found so many other people were looking for advice and tips on how to improve their work. A lot of people posted some amazing pieces, so of course I was nervous but I had made an account and gotten ready to post so I still went ahead with it.

This was what I posted. I didn't really know what to say so I tried to keep it casual and inviting so that anyone could give me ANY feedback, good or bad! I had to wait for the thread to be given the okay by the website monitor, but I felt proud of myself that I had the guts to post my work online! I had linked the youtube file of the 18 seconds that I showed in the crit because I didn't know how to embed a video into the post as I am extremely new to forums! So I hoped that it wouldn't put people off! 

A few days had gone by and I hadn't heard anything, but then I finally got a reply off someone named 'Phredrek'. I was so pleased that someone had taken the time to reply and had essentially been able to give me some feedback. He gave me some well wishes and some great critiques. There is a lot that I might not have the time to change, but I am going to take his feedback on board and of course do the best that I can. 

He mentioned that my camera moves are too jarring. I am not sure if he is on about the opening scene, which others have mentioned before and I am currently in the process of changing, but if he is on about the angles a whole I am not sure how I would go about changing that because both Hayley and I's sections switch angles frequently to keep consistency, so I will see if I can make some changes later.

I also didn't notice the leg popping from my character around the 8 second mark, but now that Phredrek has mentioned it, I can and so I will also go back in and change this, just in case it becomes more noticeable to other people also!

He also raised an issue that I had had all along about Hayley's character just 'appearing', he advised me to make Hayley's character walk but his legs aren't rigged so I can't physically do that. This was an issue I brought up in the crit and my peers and Sara had not noticed until I mentioned it so I am torn on what to do at this stage. I had been conscious of this problem from the very first time I animated this scene so I definitely know where he is coming from,  and if I have time I will try and think up other creative ways of Hayley's character establishing his presence in the scene.

Overall I am so grateful that Phredrek replied to my post and gave me some great feedback. There are things that I am going to change and others that I physically cannot or don't have the privilege of time to do so. But I am going to try my best anyhow! 

Responsive Emil & the Detectives Change of Plan

After researching further into children's book illustrations and paper art, and how I wasn't really happy with how my design looked once it had been bound to an actual book, like it would on a shelf, I decided to redesign this cover because I had time. I wanted to be a little more adventurous and crafty, and cut my designs with some textured paper that I had used for birthday cards. I am familiar with this process but I don't do a lot of it, so I thought again I would push myself for this brief and 'get out there' a bit more so I can get more back from this module. 

I began with trying to get the design I wanted to create in my head, onto paper. I knew that I wanted it to look 3 dimensional, with having pieces of paper come out from behind the detective, and I also knew from all my other research, that I needed to have nice bright colours so children can interact with the cover and enjoy it. I decided to keep the design from my other cover, of the detective, but use it in a different way, because I still really did like the way he came out. 

To make the design of my book cover, I purchased some textured paper/card stock that had every single colour you could think of, which was a lot of help for me because it meant I had variety to choose from. It also allowed me to consider what colours go with each other, as this is something that I had been struggling with lately even though I love colour and colour theory.

And since I had my designs ready on paper, I began cutting them out! I drew my designs on the back of the textured paper, and then went over them with a scalpel. I had to buy a scalpel from the college library, because I only had a craft knife and it wasn't sharp enough to cut through this card stock as it was much thicker than regular paper. I really enjoyed doing this as it was sort of relaxing and satisfying because I could see the shapes come to life instantly. It was also refreshing to take a step back from doing everything digitally, which makes me motivated to do more of it! 

I also made my text with cutting out paper and this turned out a lot better than I had expected. I had planned to do this, but I was taking a risk because typography is not my strongest point, let alone making my own through cutting out paper. However I think the letters turned out fine. To save myself time and the pain of using a scalpel for too long, I only cut out one of each letter that I needed. For example, I cut out one 'E' letter when there are at least four of them. By doing this I was able to duplicate them in Photoshop, whilst keeping continuity within the typeface.

To create the detective and 3D effect, I used two sheets of paper with little sticky squares that allow you to stick paper together with a few centimetres in between. I cut a perfect circle out of the top sheet of paper, so that you could be able to see the detective pooping out from behind, as well as the previous waves that I cut out before. To make the background, I simply cut strips of different coloured paper out and layered them so that they made a grid like effect. This allowed me to have even more texture in my design, as well as some complexity and dimension. 

I then scanned all of my paper onto my laptop and into Photoshop ready to edit. I didn't like how my detective came out so in the end I ended up copying and pasting the one I had made from my previous designs, and adding a cardboard texture as an overlay on top, so that it would blend in with the rest of the cover designs. I think it looks much better, and colour wise, looks much more complimentary. I enhanced my card stock saturation a bit more as I found that it got lost a little bit in the scanner, and duplicated some, changing the hue to green so that I could tie the detective and the background together. I also altered the tone of the grid like strips of paper so that it wasn't as harsh. This taught me a lot as I obviously had to change most of the hues to get everything to look aesthetically pleasing together. I am grateful that I can do this in Photoshop, but I will have to think about this again in the future in order to get the right colours of paper first time around.

As for the text, I also changed some hues in this to make it look like it belonged on the same page as the design of the detective. I really love how it turned out though, because it looks handmade, but also quite polished so I am proud of myself for experimenting and achieving this. Last year I was told to experiment and take risks more, and I definitely think I am doing it with this brief, or at least trying to. I think duplicating the letters in Photoshop helped me a lot, because there is a lot of consistency in the letter shapes now, which I may have not achieved if I had cut them out them over and over.

Then it was time to put everything into the template from Penguin, and add all the required texts and information. I wanted to keep the rest of the covers simple because the design is so loud in itself. Therefore I kept my text for the synopsis white and minimalistic, and to keep the same font for the title on the side of the book, I copy and pasted it, but added a white colour overlay which I found to be so helpful and I loved the result. I then traced over the paper cuts that I had cut out and added them to the top left hand corner of the back cover and I think this pulls the whole design together and makes it so much more lively and exciting! I am very happy with how this design turned out, much more than my previous one therefore I am glad I took the time to change it.

I think this design caters more to children, as it is more colourful, exuberant and full of life. It is also hand crafted which is something that children love to do so hopefully I can connect to them on that level. This was such a challenge for me to create this cover, but I am so happy with it and I think it is my favourite one out of the three! 

Responsive: Emil and the Detectives Change of Plan

Because I wasn't really happy with my Emil and the Detectives book cover, and even further displeased once I printed and bounded it, I decided to get rid of that design and start again. I felt like my struggles came from not knowing any younger siblings or cousins to ask for their opinion, and that was my downfall, however I was determined to try again! 

I thought long and hard about what could appeal to children. Since they are very inquisitive and sensory leaners, I thought to scrap the idea of creating something digitally, and physically make something which is like what they would do. I think children are very creative (I remember as a child wanted to make anything and everything), so it makes sense to pick this route. I think creating something with texture, with vibrancy will not only be a great way to reinvent this novel, but it will also make children curious and hopefully invite parents too! 

Follow Ciara's board Children's Book Illustrations on Pinterest. 

I decided to pin as many children's book illustrations as I possibly could as a start for my next cover. I thought they were all really beautiful, and I noticed that almost all of them had at least one character on the cover. I will definitely be doing this now that I now it is a common selling factor, and perhaps what makes the child feel engaged and related to the story!

I also saw that these covers are though very beautiful, very busy! There is not a cm on the page that doesn't have a design on them. I noticed that when I went to WHSmiths, sometimes there were busy covers, but sometimes there was not, but this is something I will be considering! After making a collection of the designs I liked, I still wanted to physically make a cover with card stock and a scalpel. I didn't see many (if any!) of these on Pinterest or in store, so this could be my unique selling point?

Follow Ciara's board Paper Inspo! on Pinterest.

Because I am very new to paper and cutting card stock, I looked for some inspiration on where I could generate my ideas. I found these ones to be very dimensional and vivid in colour which is the look I am going for, unlike my previous very neutral design. However these pins are very complex, especially as I will be experimenting with this cover and making my own font! This is daunting because it could go all wrong, but I have my hopes up high and I am willing to challenge myself and try and work on some new skills which I said I wanted to achieve at the start of this module! 

My favourite influences...

Owen Gildersleeve (Professional Paper Cutter)

Fideli Sundqvist (Professional paper artist)

Brittney Lee (Paper artist)

Responsive: Penguin Book Binding & Feedback

After completing my three designs for the Penguin 2016 brief, I decided I wanted to see what they looked like on actual books, and whether or not their designs would still be cohesive! I printed them out on A4 sized paper, and then trimmed with a pen knife, the borders in which the ink was allowed to 'bleed'. I was not very confident at this process because most of my work is always digital and stays digital, so binding books was a new stage for me! I then folded them in the correct areas, and chose books that were quite thin, because the spines on the designs suggested to me that the books would not be very thick.

I started with my design for 'A Clockwork Orange. I think this is my favourite design out of the three, because it has depth and colour, but works well together, even in print! I was surprised at how this turned out and think that is resembles the book quite nicely. One thing I am thinking of changing however, is the top of the design seems a little high, as if it is too close to the top of the page of the book. I am not sure if this is down to my cutting skills or if the book design needs to be changed, but the more I look at it the more I see it, so I will definitely be thinking of that!

I also really like how the spine turned out for this book also, because it matches the colours of the penguin logo, so everything really ties together. I think keeping the fonts from the front cover has also made my design consistent and solid, which are key elements that the brief asks for. I also believe with the luminous orange, the spine would stand alone on a shelf full of books as well! 

Next I binded my design for 'How to be a Woman'. I loved this design on screen, but when I printed it, the colour didn't seem as vibrant and eye catching. I think this may be down to the ink of the printer, because in Photoshop, the colours are all very vivid and complimentary. However I am not sure whether this design is too 'plain'. I feel like there may need to be some borders or something just to fill the negative space. I will ask feedback for this because I have never been confident with negative space to begin with, so it could just be me being biased.

                                 

I did like the spine and how simplistic it was though. If I could, I would have loved to emboss the green 'HOW TO BE A WOMAN' title, so that it would be a shiny neon/metallic green to reflect the new digital generation, however because I could not do that, I stuck to plain paper.

The last book to bind was my 'Emil and the Detectives' design. This was by far my favourite to make, but also the scariest for me to think about binding. I had a feeling that the front cover would look a little bare once all put in place, because my focus was tying the design together to the spine. And my fears were true! I love the back cover and how this turned out because there is still detail and elements going on, but for me the front cover didn't reach its goal. I think it is too bare, and needs a little more 'something' to liven it up a bit, and reach the brief in terms of being a standing alone design.

When looking at the spine though, you can see the design start to tie together, but not enough for me to like the front design on it's own. Therefore I will be altering this because I am unhappy with it and would not like to submit it whilst it still has an empty tone.

       

These are the three book designs in relation to each other. I have tried to experiment with different techniques, colour palettes and styles. Obviously working with neutral colour palettes is new and out of my comfort zone, as well as catering to specific audiences, especially those who are out of my own age range and demographic! Therefore I feel like this whole brief really challenged me in these areas, and gave me an insight into my future, and what I will be faced with.

I also asked for some feedback from my peers. They agreed that the 'Emil and the Detective' design was quite bare on the cover, but worked well as a whole. They also said that I could add some texture to the 'How to be a Woman' background in order to make it feel right and more complete. I asked them about the 'Clockwork Orange' and liked the colour scheme, but perhaps I could try and make my other covers, feel as resolute and ready for the shelves as this one, because they feel like there are things missing on them. I really appreciate this feedback because I myself was struggling with some of the covers, and I feel like I can get more out of the brief when other people give me advice because they are part of an audience as well! 

Responsive Penguin: Emil and the Detectives Designing

For my 'Emil and the Detectives' brief, I started with the ideas that I had been most excited to experiment with. This was to practice with emphasising the spine of the book, and somehow have a design around that. Not many books do this, but when it is done, it actually looks really clever and will definitely stand out amongst others on the shelf. One thing I did not do with this brief, was choose the colour palette because being honest I was really unsure of what to go for. Yellow was a reoccurring colour throughout all of my Emil research and pops up on almost every cover! But Penguin were asking for something different, something new and exciting, so I ignored that reoccurring colour and went with whatever colour I thought worked well.

I started by making my detective. I kept him very simple as you can see because the book is catered to children and I didn't want to over complicate or confuse younger readers. I also added a looking glass because it may give more clues to the children what the story is about. I made his suit a very vibrant colour also because I think children love things that excite them and colour is one of these.

I then duplicated my detective three times, and changed the hue/saturation of their suits so that they would look different yet compliment each other just the same. I made sure that the orange detective was in the centre, and that he could look suitable after binding. I duplicated him once more, and then used a colour overlay in black, and placing him behind the other three to emulate a shadow. This is to represent the mystery and the evil in the book.

Next I added some train tracks! This is because this is the point where Emil meets the detective... on a train! So like I had planned, I wanted to involve attributes that were actually involved in the book, because I want children to immediately be captivated and engaged with it. Also because the background I have chosen is a cardboard/old dirty paper type of shade, I thought I would make an imprint for the title, as if it were actually an old envelope. The book was originally published in 1929, so I thought adding some archaic aspects from that era would match and suit the book perfectly! I tried to incorporate every element!  I also used an old type writer font because I wanted it to match an actual type writer, going along with my themes.

I then used the same font for the blurb but also used some of the colours from the detectives suits just to make everything tie in together. 

I did have an issue with a bunch of empty space on the front page where the bike is on the image above. Before the bike, there seemed to be too much space, so I added it in, not only because it is something that Emil rides, but also because it adds some extra detail to the front cover, as all three covers have to work together (cohesion).

And this is the final design! I really like how it came out, even though I really struggled with colour and position at times. I think this is mainly due to me wanting to have the spine as the central focus, but it was a challenge and in the end I was able to work with what I had set myself.

I did end up having a go at changing the colour palette again, just to see if any colours worked better and I ended up with this version. I actually really like it, and I think it would be much suited to these 'modern' readers. But I am not sure if it is 'children' material. Though it is vivid and vibrant, I am not sure if the other colour palette, with the greens and purples would be more appealing to a younger audience. I am going to ask a few people what they think, before submitting my designs! 

Responsive Penguin: Emil and the Detectives Research

Of course the first thing I did after I analysed the 'Emil and the Detectives' brief was look up the existing book covers, to allow myself an idea of what I will be re-inventing. I immediately saw yellow in various shades, as the reoccurring colour across the whole of the range of covers, minus one. To me, yellow is a symbol of warmth and friendliness, and it is also colour that has no gender specification/stereotype, so is obviously aimed to attract both boys and girls. I think this will be one area that I will not be sticking to because it has visually been done at least four times here.

I also noticed that most of the covers look the same in terms of illustration. They all have a hand drawn little boy on the cover and maybe this is something that Penguin are willing to change, in their words 'whole new cover'. I also noticed that placement is also very similar on each cover. The title is mostly on the top of the page and the illustrations are in the centre. Perhaps I can reinvent this and go with something completely different. Maybe think of rhythm on a page instead of plain and structured.

Knowing that I wanted to involve some sort of illustration of a detective on my cover. I went into researching the different appearances from different eras. I know recently in popular TV shows, such as 'True Detective' and 'Dexter', detectives do not 'look' like detectives, in fact they actually look like police officers under cover. However the more I looked into eras, the more I started to see that I really liked the look of the formal suit, jacket and bowler hat that you see in black and white films. I especially think that younger children will be able to distinguish a detective with this attire, than one with that of a normal police officer.

Responsive: Emil and the Detectives Ideas

The last of the Penguin briefs that I was tackling was "Emil and the Detectives" by Erich Kastner. I was excited for this brief but also a little worried as I am not familiar with the story, nor how children's book are illustrated nowadays. I also have no younger siblings/cousins to ask, so this brief is going to be very hard for me, however I am going to try my hardest to make it work! The brief states that it wants a new concept that will attract a new generation of readers, whilst maintaining the original heart warming story that is a must read for all children. It also wants to have a design that will attract parents, so that they will want to pick it up for their child also. This I am am more comfortable with. 

I broke down the brief next, and thought about some ways to visualise the story on a cover. Because I don't want the cover to be ambiguous, as the audience is children and not English Literature students, I thought about illustrating different parts of the novel on the cover so that the child will know exactly what the contents of the book is, and what they will be expecting from the story. It will also help the parents in having some sight into what they will be reading to their child. I also thought about having vivid and exciting colours, because children love bright and simple things. I think simple will be the way to go about this as children won't really care how detailed a character is but will care whether something looks 'boring' or not. I also thought about having silhouettes of the detectives on the cover, to give a bit of mystery to the page but contrast that with exciting colours so that children won't be scared of what's in the book, more so interested and ready to open it. 

Either way I am a bit more apprehensive with this novel because I am not 100% sure or confident in what children are looking for. If I had a younger cousin or sibling I would ask them what they like as quick as I could, but for now I am going to have to just follow the brief and assume what I think a child would be interested in.

Animating Scene Six

Scene five was all about the reaction to the throw, and where the ball lands as it is obviously not in the hoop. To begin with I really wanted to focus on eyes. Since the first 20 seconds of this animation are not close ups, with this scene I really got the chance to show my character's emotions. From my research on the Uncanny Valley and from Sara's lecture, facial expressions are extremely important for conveying to the audience the tone of the scene and what the character is feeling. Without them the animation can feel 'flat' and a bit off, so this was my chance to have a go at avoiding that!

Obviously my character doesn't have a mouth, but she does have eyes and since I rigged them I could move them so that her line of vision follows the brothers hat falling to the floor.

I then had her laugh as a reaction to his failure. This was EXTREMELY tedious to do. I had rigged my character's shoulders so that they rotated, but I wish I had been able to translate them as well as I really wanted her to move them up and down. I was able to emulate this through moving the clavicle, to get that up and down effect, but for every time I did this, I had to also move the elbow as this moved with the clavicle as well. I followed the reference video that Hayley filmed of me, and was able to replicate this to some degree. To then add a bit of mischief, I moved her hand to her mouth, to illustrate that she is hiding something (i.e her ability to win the game in a second). 

Reference video of me laughing.

To get the movement of the hat, I used a mixture of reference videos and my own intuitive. It is not the best animation of a hat falling off a head, but it was the best that I could do. In reality, a hat falls really quickly unless it is quite windy outside, but I wanted to have a swaying effect (like a feather) so that there would be this awkward silence, and the hat can drop slow enough for the audience to look at the little girls expression and then back again to see where it lands. This allowed me to have a go at animating objects as well as characters, and look at how they move and what their paces are in comparison to those in real life! 

My reference video.

I obviously exaggerated Hayley's characters hat falling off as I wanted it to be a bit more dramatic to how I had mine filmed. My hat was different to the cap that Hayley's character has on, so I knew that the weights would be different, as well as the velocity of the 'swooping'. My hat didn't really swoop too much, so I had to use my initiative on this, but I did generally follow the path of the hat falling from my reference video!

Responsive: Emil and the Detectives Product Proposal

The problems I aim to solve are...

1) Appealing to a younger audience. Because I have no younger relations around me, I do not really know off the top of my head what books and designs appeal to younger children. 

2) Another problem I face with this brief is that it asks for a complete reinvention of the book. Therefore it asks to be nothing alike its existing covers, it has to be fresh and new. This is frightening as my influences have to be drawn from my own themes and ideas!

3) The last problem I have with this brief is appealing to the parents of the children as well. I want to have some sort of complexity within the design so parents will pick it up to read to their children, and not think that it is too simplistic that their children won't learn anything. 

To solve these problems, I aim going to...

1) The obvious answer to me is colour and simplicity, but to solve being unsure, I am going to take a look at the popular books for children and see what their book covers appear like and what they have in common. 

2) To solve this it would be good to look at the ones that are already on the market so I know what to avoid. This also means I have free rein on what I can create. I could also choose key themes within the book and brainstorm from there?

3) To solve this I am going to stray very far from my usual designs and be very experimental, since this brief is very unfamiliar to me, I want to be able to try something new whilst I have the chance!

I will be communicating the themes/moods/ideas of...

1) Crime. This is the main genre of the book, I want this to be clear from the cover.

2) Excitement. Children won't go anywhere near a book that is plain and boring, I need to be creative, think more broadly! 

3) Bravery. The book embodies this theme, perhaps I can involve this somehow on the cover as well? Through colour? Through line work? 

This will be to an audience of...

1) Young, inquisitive children/teens. This is the author's target market, so I will also cater to this demographic.

2) Parents. I would like for parents to want to pick up the book as much as their child would! They have the final say, so hopefully I can appeal to them as well.

3) Anyone who loves a good mystery. Harry Potter is marketed as a children's book, but I have reread it over the last few years and I am well out of that age bracket. Therefore I hope I can intrigue other older generations to have a read as well! 

Animating Scene Five - The Throw

         

I started to animate the last 10 seconds of my part of the animation, which was the first throw. I was most excited to start this, but also apprehensive because this is where our animation really starts to kick off and I wanted it to look really exciting and full of fluid movements.

I made the mistake of starting this part before consulting Hayley. We had already agreed that my character would stand at the left of the stand and hers would go to the right, but we never talked about which arm we were throwing with, as to keep it natural, we were to use the same one for each throw. Therefore I had gone and started to animate the left arm, to change up my camera angles, and she had used the right.

Seen as how I had only done a little bit of the action, I didn't want her to have to start all over again as I knew she had tried really hard on it, therefore I just decided to change  camera angles and use the other arm as well! However this was an example of our poor communication, and for future references we agreed to talk about EVERYTHING instead of just assuming what the other was doing.

Therefore it was time to animate the throw. I did a number of these because I was trying to get used to Hayley's character's arms and the joints in her skeleton, as they were placed at very different points to mine, so it took a few times for me to get the perfect throw! Looking at my reference video, I tried to replicate my own throw, but it was better said than done. 

In this try, he looks like he is ready to to a forward stroke in a swimming pool! Therefore I evaluated that I had not bent his elbow enough, and I had placed the shoulder and hand too high! 

With this next throw, I still had the hand too high, but the force of the throw was perfect. Hayley had helped me with this one in class as her throw was perfect and I was struggling a little bit. I tried even doing the arm movements myself as I was animating to try and mirror the action, but because he has more muscle than me, and I wanted to illustrate strength and force, I couldn't get it quite right!

                                                         

However third time lucky, and I was finally happy with the throw. I tweaked it a bit more, so that it would 'feel' right, and look like an authentic throw. Hayley also liked it and said it was much better than the first. After showing Mat and Hayley the throw that I had achieved, I was given some great feedback. The initial throw was fine, however just before the brother lets go of the ball, I was advised to perhaps move the hand back and over exaggerate the action, and then let it spring back to a more natural movement. I hadn't even thought about this as I was so concerned about how the body moves and how both arms would be effected, therefore I am so glad that Mat pointed it out to me.

                                 

I applied this feedback and think the throw looks much better. and looks as though there is more weight on the right arm and left leg which was what I had been trying to convey initially! His throw also looks so much smoother, and this has greatly improved my throw from such a small change! Overall though it took me a good few tries, I am so pleased with the result! In this particular scene I really got to think about weight and where to put it, as well as force and the 'follow through' of movements. The 12 principles of animation apply just as much (if not more) here than to drawn animation and I have really started to think about them and make a conscious effort to illustrate them in each of my scenes! 

Responsive: Penguin - How to be a Woman Designing

Once I had all my mood board and ideas jotted down, I went straight to the pen and paper. I copied the picture of myself where I am holding my phone and then went over it with pen. I tried to keep the plan simple, so that I could add stuff in later if I wanted to. I then added my text bubbles and banners at the top of the cover so that I have room to put the required quotes up there.

I then coloured it in in Photoshop, just to get an idea of what kind of colours I could work with. I really wanted some bright and fun colours because that is the epitome of the book, as it is all about feeling good! I think pink can be quite a comforting yet playful colour, so that was the one that I chose as the central colour, then I picked turquoise and blue to contrast this so that I could still have colours that compliment each other, but also ones that jump out. 

To begin with I knew that I wanted to have very bright and vivid colours for this book because it is funny, quirky and memorable in itself, so of course the cover had to reflect this. It is also to be imaginative and exciting, so I tried to think very outside the box for this one.

I then got onto the central illustration of the cover. I created a replica of a smartphone using the shape tools, added some depth with an inner shadow and titled it at an angle, as if the viewer would actually be using the phone, or as if the person on the cover is showing the viewer what is on their phone. I then went and added the hand which was much trickier for me to make. It didn't look like a hand at all first, so I went and added some nail polish and thankfully it started to come together! I then put the little illustration that I came up with on the centre of the screen, though I started to debate whether I should put the title here or not.

Once I had done that, I got onto making my apps. I wanted to include a good range of them, from easily distinguishable ones, to ones that symbolise quoted from the blurb. For example for "Should we get botox?' I drew some big bright lips, and for "Why does everyone ask us when we're going to have a baby?" I drew a milk bottle. Just things that are very relatable to women, yet in a modern way, i.e apps and a phone.

Once I was happy with the main illustrations, I started to add my title and quotes that were required for the front cover only. I decided that since typography wasn't a major focus, that I wouldn't detract too much from the concept, yet I still wanted to find a font that is stylish and approachable. I chose Gill Sans for the whole of the design template. Ever since I was told not to use more than two fonts on one design (unless for a concept) then one good font is usually enough.

Therefore I got straight onto the back cover. I carried the theme onto the back by using the speech bubble effect that is now popular in film and Tv shows. I've never personally seen it on a book so I thought it would be a great idea. I also had a spur of the moment idea to create a mailbox app behind the barcode, just because in the brief it said that it could be repositioned if the designer wanted to and I have rarely seen designers interact with it, so I gave it a go. I then carried on the symbols from the front cover onto the top of the back cover, changing the colours to the colour palette and I think everything ties together quite nicely.

This is the front and back covers now together and I think they are rather cohesive and have a thorough concept. I love the colour palette and how everything connects. I would have liked to have made the speech bubbles a little thicker but I will get some feedback first before I start tweaking. But overall I have really enjoyed working on this template as well. I don't read enough non-fiction, so I was slightly out of my depth, but I think you can still make a cover exciting even when the contents isn't fantasy or a wild fiction narrative.