Studio Brief 01 - Responsive - Feedback - In cold blood

In cold back - feedback
                                              

These two designs are in response to the penguin publishing brief.  Both have the same subject matter but differ in approach. 

Image 1

This first image is intended to evoke emotion. Its subtle in design but speaks loudly. The text and image together telling story without knowing anything. The identity of this woman has been distorted, and we could say its also been distorted within this crime, a lot of the time we see victims of something like this and theres no other connection we have to this person other than the crime, losing who they were. 

Feedback - Image 1

                                                                 

Questions:

1. What are the emotions evoked from this cover?

• "Happy as the person is smiling but then a little disturbed seeing the image and the title"
• "Unease due to the protagonist eyes being covered"
• "Shocking, however looks like only one person died"
• "Sinister, the decontextualized portrait of a smiling young girl contrasted with the obviously dark title works effectively"
• "Very Sinister, on edge"
• "Makes me think of a murder case with the red text"
• "The type is hard to read, the image quality is poor, maybe use the image of whole family"
• "Might work better with a darker red"

Is the font/colour choice in general appropriate?

• "Yes - font size possibly too big - print out to test"
• Yeah, but is there a way to make the red stand out more on top of the image?"
• Yes Helvetica produced in the same year as the murders"
• Typeface perhaps a little big large in proportion to the cover - also red is also a little bit obvious, possibly use a less obvious but equally contrasting colour would work (green or yellow)
• "Colour choice is perfect, would experiment more with typeface though perhaps a serif font? to add to the more sinister imagery"
• "Colour works really well, type too. its bold, striking, hard hitting"

Feedback - Image 2

                                                                 

Questions

1. Is this cover too simple? What emotions does it evoke? 

• "sets the scene of the book content, but not sure what it would stand out to me as a buyer. Experiment with the tones of the image, so that there is more definition?"
• "Out of context the cover isn't clear for someone who's not read this book"
• "No, minimalist design is effective!"
• "Simple in a clear way but structured way, snow works, feeling of chill, winter which works with the title"
• "Not not at all - feels cold - maybe almost Christmassy?"
• Feels sad, lonely, isolated"
• "Try and add some small details to the type, something relating to the book"

2. Is the font choice/ colour appropriate? 

• "Spacing between lines of title appear too far apart (in my opinion) Random placing of Truman Capote but it works with the negative space of image, Colour would stand out more if the background had more definition"
• "Black and white shows type context and red blood - yes!"
• "A serif typeface could work better, something similar to those used in newspapers"
• Colour is fine, would experiment with more typefaces, however, I do like the boldness" 
• "I think the author's name would work better flush left to the cover"

Image 2

Development

Taking into mind of this feedback. The designs can be further developed.

• Changing serif 
• Experiment with type
• Layout
• Image quality improvement 
• Change image - a few variations 

More experimenting with type results

Cover with a serif font.

 Hand made type, more personal/sinister.

Tacking the image quality, how this can be imporved. Possibly screen print.