Intention
The intention of my project is to successfully design book jacket covers for two of my mom’s novels. The inspiration behind these novels that I intend to emulate are Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes, Beach Read by Emily Henry and The Jetsetters by Amanda Ward. I want the design of Top Five and the re-design of Love, Reality Style to evoke the same styles to catch reader’s attention.
Impact
The impact I hope to make with this project is for the designs to live up to their expectations. That is, I truly want my mother’s stories to come alive through images on the front and back covers so an audience can truly get a feel for their love story messages. So often a book can fall flat if the design has nothing to do with the message it is trying to convey. I hope fans from different reading styles or genres are able to appreciate the classic love story novel and amplify my mother’s writing.
Best and Worst Case Scenarios
The best case scenario for the impact of this project would be for a wide range of people to notice the covers and develop an interest in my mom’s writing. So often people judge a book by its cover so there is so much weight in how to deliver the story with just an image on a shelf. I want the covers to grab people’s attention and make them want to read the book so it becomes memorable to them.
The worst case scenario would be a poorly delivered book that does not pique the interest of the target audience. I am sure people have read and seen countless love stories where some fall to the back of their mind. It would be a failure for me if these designs were just more noise to the reading community.
Personal Identities, Lived Experiences, and Attempts at Inclusivity
The main characters of the first book Top Five book are both white, straight, cisgender male and females who fall in love. Quinn Sheridan has two lesbian aunts and Whitt has a disabled father. All of these personal identities will somehow be incorporated in the design I choose – whether or not they are explicitly featured on the cover. These identities are what make up the love story, so while it might be challenging to include experiences from all backgrounds or walks of life, I will try my best to diversify the cover from what has already been done before. I am aware that there is a lack of diversity in these two novels, however, I can still make the designs inclusive to all audiences. I do not want the designs of the cover to harp on the main characters experiences, but rather the themes of connection and authenticity,
February 22, 2022 at 6:34 pm
Maggie,
I understand your project, but wish you had focused throughout the post on the issues of inclusion and diversity instead of (or in addition to) appreciation of the covers themselves.
For example, you write that “[a]ll of these personal identities will somehow be incorporated in the design I choose.” How so? In your best case scenario, what would that look like? What will you need to do in order to figure out what to include in the designs? And what would the worst case scenario look like, not in terms of aesthetic of the cover, but in terms of the inclusivity you are trying to capture?
You also don’t discuss how you own identity and lived experiences could possibly impact the design choices you make, and how you might go about making sure those lived experiences don’t frame to heavily the choices you make.
Ultimately, we just needed to see these kinds of discussions throughout the whole of the post.
Bill