MINIMALIST BOOK COVERS

"this series was my way of releasing some of that energy creatively"

Images from 'Chic Blog Type' blog

These are the book covers of famous fairy tales, including 'Snow White', 'The Ugly Duckling', 'Mary Poppins' and Pinnochio'  all designed by Christian Jackson, who works for Square Inch Design.  When these were made is unknown but these covers have a minimalist design, using only an important element of the book to represent the story. I have chosen to analyse this piece, as it is a source of inspiration for my book jackets outcome for the final exam.

As mentioned before, the purpose of these minimalist designs is to represent the whole essence of the story using a single aspect from the book. So in the case of 'The three bears', the three porridges with their flaws, and the long braided hair from 'Rapunzel', and the long nose from 'Ponnochio'. According to the designer, he had become a father, and creating these fairly tale covers "was a way of releasing that energy creatively" and that his lifestyle "pretty much demanded it". Unlike some artworks, where the title of the work informs the viewer more than actual work, this case is the other way round: the main element does this for the viewer.

These designs may have been hand drawn before being edited digitally on Photoshop. The background seems to have some sort of texture, so these may have been overlain with colour, or he could have used some sort of gradient tool. Some of the shapes featured on these covers could have been installed on the digital programs before hand, or he could have installed them himself, and positioned them himself to his liking.  In the case of the 'Rip Van Winkle' cover, the designer may have used 'Diffuse glow' technique, or a Brush tool set at a low opacity, using the colour white. All of the books follow the same design: The  main element of the book is usually placed in the centre, with the title of the story, written in uppercase lettering, is placed on the bottom left hand side, accompanied with the author's name and series number in smaller sized typing underneath. This could have been the style specifically chosen by the publishing company that Jackson was working for, whilst everything else was his own decision. The size of these is most likely to be A4/A5 size, as this are the standard size for books.

Even if you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, these covers made me want to read them, even if they give you more of a clue as to what the book will be about, and this is what I like about it- the fact that the designer uses only one element (a few objects) from the story but it says quite a bit. These minimalist designs are similar to Christian Peterson's Harry Potter series covers, as they are also minimalistic, but they say a lot about the story, without giving much away. So although they do convey some information, to get the full idea of the plot, you still need to open up the book and read it. This is how effective I want my final outcomes to be when I create them.