Penguin: Research and ideas

In order to further develop my initial ideas in order to produce more conceptual and relevant designs I started by reading The Brief History of Time in order to find interesting aspects within the book that could be incorporated within the designs (see figure 1). One of the most interesting aspects of the book is the examples given to explain some of the complex theories within the book such as ping pong on a train to explain the concept of time/movement. Furthermore I found the beginning of the book particularly interesting as it details a lecture in which a women stood up and declared that the world was flat and was held up on the back of a turtle. This was interesting as Hawking used the anecdote to question why we (as scientists) think we know better and what we actually know which sets the tone of the book as Hawking's discusses the scientific breakthroughs over time and how what we used to think was true has drastically changed.

Figure 1

Interestingly when reading through the book I discovered a quote '3 quarks for muster mark' from Murray Gell-Mann who discovered and named the particles that make up protons and electrons, quarks. Due to this discovery I experimented with featuring it on the cover (see figures 2), with initial experiments looking at repeating the quote to represent the multiple quarks that make up a proton/neutron, with the colours being taken from different flavours of quarks red, blue and green. However I felt there wasn't much room to develop or expand upon the initial idea in figure 2 as flipping the quote on its head had little conceptual relevance and failed to improve the design itself. This lead to the development of experimenting with circle of colour inspired (see figure 3) by the simple shape of quarks within a proton (see figure 4). However although this experimentation references the diagrams I research I felt they looked too primitive and uninteresting, failing to reflect the brief itself. Furthermore when I gain peer-to-peer feedback on these initial experiment students agreed that they where generally uninteresting and would attract them to read the book. Throughout both experiments Futura has been used as when feedback was gained on initial experiments many agreed that Futura worked well on the cover as it created a modern aesthetic to the covers whilst till referencing space.

Figure 2

Figure 4

Figure 4

Upon reflection of the experiments above I decided to explore the less traditional aspects of the book that I found interesting, specifically the comment at the beginning of the book 'the world is really flat supported on the back of a giant turtle'. I found this interesting as Hawkings uses it to question what we know and what we've discovered which is both relevant to the scientific breakthroughs of today and those discussed within the book. This lead to the development of the implementation of an illustration of a turtle within the cover, I didn't want to feature a flat version of the earth as I wanted to reference the book in a more subtle manner than just recreating the phrase itself. Consequently leading to a simple line illustration of a turtle being featured across the font and back cover, the size of the illustration being inspired by the quote 'giant turtle'. However I felt that the placement of the copy in figure 5 needed editing in order for it to become more legible, so it could be easily read on a shelf of on screen. As a result in I moved the copy into the spaces around the turtle in figure 6 to allow both the illustration and the copt to become more visible, also having the the title and Stephen Hawking at a larger point size allows the key information to be clearly visible as I feel customers will be more attracted to the book when they know its written by Hawking as he is such a well known physicist especially among the younger generation. The balance between making the reader aware the book is by Hawking and aware of the title was important, as although I wanted Hawkings name to be clearly visible, the title took precedent to accommodate those who may already be aware and are looking for the book specifically. The use of white and green allows the illustration to stand out without obstructing the copy as featuring a coloured background looked too heavy and distracted the viewer from both the illustration and the copy (see figure 7). In order to explore the use of the illustration more within the cover I experimented with different placements of the turtle. Figure 8 showcases the turtle more predominately, with Hawking's being the focus of the spin in order to entice a wider audience. Although this experimentation showcases the turtle more clearly I feel its quite basic and other experimentations are more successful. Furthermore after experimenting with one illustration I decided to repeat the pattern  as when the women who shouted the quote was questions she said it was turtles all the way down (see figure 9). Additionally the pattern also draws people to the book as from a far you can't distinguish what the pattern is made of, this realisation reflections the discovery within the book and the journey the reader goes through as they discover new things. Furthermore the pattern doesn't take attention away from the copy as the black typography overpower the complex nature of the pattern allowing both aspects to work with each other.  Due to the complex nature of the pattern I developed the pattern to just feature the shell of the turtle in order to create a more abstract reference. Separating the shells so they are more spread out allows for the pattern to become more visible from a far as well as creating a greater impact on the viewer. Figure 11 features a smaller version of figure 10 which is more successful as it creates a more abstract representation of the original repeat pattern in figure 9 without distracting from the copy which happens a little in figure 10. Overall I personally feel the most successful experimentations are figure 6 and 9. However I plan to develop these experimentations further by looking at my original ideas to see if they can work together within one cover.

Figure 5

Figure 6

Figure 7

Figure 8

Figure 9

Figure 10

Figure 11