Evaluation

For this project I was asked to create book covers for three books taken from Penguin Modern Classics book list. I had to create an illustrative photo for each of the books then lay over a template of the title and the Penguin Modern Classics logo.  I was given the synopsis of the three books then had to come up with my own interpretation. 
First I read through the synopsis for each of the books and wrote my ideas down to see which one i could actually use: 
At Swim-Two-Birds: 
two men - college student and stubborn old man
reflection on water of two birds
pages with written words on it with pencil next to it + drugs
Guiness - harp + toucan
Jamesons 
Invisible Man:
black face, black background
shadows 
celler
empty places
Interzone:
back streets
sex
low lighting
dark, door way
I tried most of my ideas as best as I possible could. I felt the most successful are the ones I have completed. 
For my At Swim-Two-Birds cover, I started off thinking my idea about the birds on water would be the most effective, but soon realised it didn't work as well as I first thought. It had nothing to do with the storyline of the book and it was a little bit too obvious. It showed the audience nothing to do with the content of the book, only the title. When I first edited it I did try to make one of the birds look innocent to represent the college student and one of them darker to show the stubborn uncle, but my representation wasn't strong enough and really didn't make any sense. So I worked on my second idea of showing the novel that the boy was writting throughout the book. I felt this was more effective because of the style of the photo and it related to something actually happeneing in the book, but doesn't show the audience too much of the book inside. 
For my Invisible Man cover, I took many photos of shadows and placed them all together to create the illusion of many people around the man in the photo but taking no notice of him. My other idea for this cover was taking a photo of an empty place, which turned into a park, but with one man in the frame but not being very clear in the first glance. The only problem I found this the second idea was once I put the template over the top the photo was too light so you can't really read the title as clearly as the other one. 
For my Interzone cover, I really liked the idea of using a dark back alley to show the scene that the book was set in. North African coast where there is a lot of drugs, sex and prostitution and where no one would step foot down a back alley. And there is elements of these subjects in the book. When editing I decided to change one of them into sepia and to look old fashioned as the book is set in 1954, and the second one I edited to be darker but also purple to represent the drugs and craziness. 
Overall I feel that the most successful of my covers is the on for At Swim-Two-Birds. Simply because it is the most illustrative and simple yet very effective.