Part 3 Exercise 8: Making a mock up

 

I choose the book cover HAPPY by Derren Brown as I really liked the concept, I found that there were 3 different designs as well as the colours. I chose the yellow one because that’s the version I own.

 

 Happy is very self-explanatory to draw, I had the perfect Illustration to use for this exercise and reading the back of the book I think it relates to it well. Firstly, I just recreated the cover and changed only the balloons to a pink because I feel like blue can be associated with sad sometimes so pink could give it a new emotion. After this I started with added just my illustration as well as changing the colours around to see what effect I could produce.

This illustration I think suits the book so well, the writing is quite comedic, and I think it encapsulates 'Happy' because of the expression, because it’s a sort of self-help book the size of the head could maybe symbolise how the book is full of helpful information and gives you a lot of interesting things to think about. His big head must be full of knowledge after reading.

This variation puts focus in different parts of the page unlike the original there are pops of colour all over, the white writing of Derren stand out a lot more and the peach is more attractive against the blue. However, the random amounts of colour could also make the cover look messy and unappealing.

I used a drawing guide to make sure everything was symmetrical and even, I tried to stay true to the original through the spacing and scale.

The character being upside down is a bit more fun and intriguing then the right way round, the balloon also surrounds the head shape nicely. I like the idea of not having everything so centre either it makes it more interesting.

 

  After playing around with the book cover, I pasted my designs onto the actual book to get an idea of what it would look like in real life.

This white version I created is kind of like the sequel of this book called 'A little happier' pictured below except the balloons are gold and the name is red. These colours I feel are quite calming and it's like this change is on purpose as the first one needed the bright colours to portray the idea of happiness but then the second book is presenting as relaxed and peaceful as if the effort isn't as needed. I think trying it for the first book above has made me realise the colours of the originals are appropriate.

This is my favourite design, sticking with the original colours I like how the cartoon makes the cover a bit busier, its tightly packed and less spaced and it matched well to the theme of happy.

Overall, I enjoyed this exercise and editing, even though tis not real it’s fun to see one of my illustrations on the cover of a book.

I didn’t have many problems creating these covers only the figuring out what colours went together because I didn’t want anything dark that would ruin the "happiness". I did a green and purple version that I didn’t like, it was for some reason quite hard finding colours and shades that look good together. Nevertheless, the product I'm satisfied with.