Design Practice

✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

The original teenage rebel story . . .

The Socs' idea of having a good time is beating up Greasers like Ponyboy. Ponyboy knows what to expect and knows he can count on his brothers and friends — until the night someone takes things too far.

S.E. Hinton was only seventeen when she wrote The Outsiders. Told in a direct, first-person voice, it is a miracle of honesty with immediate appeal and is still every bit as powerful now as when it was first published in 1967.

Students are invited to design a whole new cover look for The Outsiders, in order to bring this classic to a new generation of readers, ensuring that this timeless story remains an integral part of every teenager's bookshelf.

Your cover design needs to include all the cover copy as supplied and be designed to the specified design template (B format, 198mm high x 129mm wide, spine 17mm wide).

What the judges are looking for:

We are looking for a striking cover design that is well executed, has an imaginative concept and clearly places the book for its market of both teenagers, to pick up and buy for themselves, and adults to buy for them. While all elements of the jacket need to work together as a cohesive whole, remember that the front cover needs to be able to work on its own and be eye-catching within a crowded bookshop setting as well as on screen at a reduced size for digital retailers.

The winning design will need to:
- have an imaginative concept and original interpretation of the brief
- be competently executed with strong use of typography
- appeal to the broadest possible audience for the book
- show a good understanding of the marketplace
- have a point of difference from the many other book covers it is competing against
- be able to sit on the shelves of a supermarket or ebook store as easily as it sits on those of more traditional bookshops

✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿

1. Why have you chosen it?
I chose to work with this brief over the adult brief, as I don't often get to design for younger audiences, and thought that it would be quite challenging for me. I've also never heard of this particular novel before, so thought that it would be interesting to work on. Also, we haven't received any briefs like this at uni yet, so it will be interesting to work with a new type of medium.

2. What do you want to get out of the brief?
I want to challenge my current skills within design and learn how to create an interesting book cover design with a clever concept behind it. I want to develop my illustrative and design development skills. I also want to develop my conceptual thoughts behind ideas and think about a lot of different ideas before heading straight into a particular design concept.

3. What do you want to produce in response to the brief?
At the moment I'm not particularly sure. I want to design something that isn't the first idea that comes to my head - I want the concept behind the design to be strong, clever and unique. I want this book cover to stand out in the crowd and persuade the audience to pick up the book and give it a read.

4. What do you need to produce in response to the brief?
The winning design will need to:
- have an imaginative concept and original interpretation of the brief
- be competently executed with strong use of typography
- appeal to the broadest possible audience for the book
- show a good understanding of the marketplace
- have a point of difference from the many other book covers it is competing against
- be able to sit on the shelves of a supermarket or ebook store as easily as it sits on those of more traditional bookshops


1. What is the problem?
The story of The Outsiders isn't well known amongst the current generation of younger readers, and they are worried that it won't remain a timeless novel.

2. What is the brief asking you to do about it?
The brief is asking me to redesign the original book cover design to encourage the current generation of younger readers to buy and read The Outsiders, in order to bring this classic book back.

3. What is the brief trying to achieve?
The brief is trying to bring the classic book The Outsiders back into the limelight, in order for it to remain timeless for years to come.

4. Who will benefit?
The younger generation - they get an insight into parts of history and older writers. Also, Penguin and the author will benefit, due to the increase of sales on the book and the promotion of Penguin's publications.

5. What is the message?
That The Outsiders was a book about the miracles of honesty and immediate appeal, and how the story is every bit as powerful now as when it was first published in 1967.

6. Who is the audience?
Predominantly teenagers - as they are the target reading audience, but adults also need to be encouraged to buy the novel for their teenagers to read.

7. How will the message be delivered?
Through a cleverly thought out book cover / jacket design.

8. Can you foresee any problems with the brief?
The design needs to stand out when printed for a book jacket, as well as when it is digitally displayed for those who read on their kindles or online on their laptops - this could be challenging, as certain methods of finishing can only be viewed to their full potential when printed - kindle book covers tend to be flat and don't hold much texture. The design will look completely different on screen than when it is printed, so this needs to be considered to ensure consistency across all applications.

The brief doesn't give you much insight into what the book is about, so it will have to be read to gain a full understanding into the novel and what goes on it the book - this will create a better concept behind the design.

The brief is quite broad on what you are actually asked to include in the design - they're literally leaving it to you to choose how you approach and respond to the brief.

Keeping the book cover unique - designing for this particular audience means that there are a variety of book designs already out there that could follow similar story lines. It will be hard to produce something that isn't similar to something that is already out there in bookstores / libraries etc.