VILLAGE BOOKSHOP TALK

Today we had a talk with Village Bookshop, they discussed what they look for in publications that they will sell in their shop. There was one point of the presentation which i found very relevant; "every aspect of the design of your publication should say something about the context".

I've been having doubts about my clients idea for the book cover, he wants material on the cover however upon thinking about this concept further it isn't going to be appropriate.
Originally my client wanted the whole cover to be covered in shirt material, i told him that this wouldn't work for the £3 budget and he agreed. We then thought of having some material within a shirt pocket shape on the cover, we both agreed that this was probably the best way to include material on the cover yet keep the costs down, however after sketching up cover designs, due to the cover not being hardback the thickness of the fabric will not work well with the thinness of the paper and will in result just look out of place.


Looking at some examples of the books they stock in Village Bookshop, i came across a cover design which inspired the new direction i want to take with the Garm Guide.
This cover design has a similar line style to the lines i've designed for the Garm Guide typography, along with the illustrations within.
I think if i follow my idea of creating a line patterns for the cover, it will be appropriate more so than using material as it isn't subjective to one item in particular, it looks fresher, it's cheap to make and we won't have to worry about the material becoming loose if students are carrying the guide in their bags.

Another element of the design which i'm going to adjust is the colour scheme. My client expressed his opinion of using purple, blue and yellow for the colour scheme of the cover (as the inside pages' colour scheme will depend on the tones within the photographs) however i think going down a more limited and unexpected colour pallet might be more effective.

Due to the inside pages being so colourful and using so many different tones, my idea is to use a bright colour on the cover to mimic the bring patterned shirts with white illustrative patterned lines all over the cover similar to the design i found on the cover of the book opposite along with the books title, as the lines within the typography i'm using will be similar to the lines which make up the cover pattern.
With this cover idea, it keeps the design minimal, to contrast with the busy content, using one colour gives me the freedom to make a series of different covers, perhaps every book can have a different coloured cover, to link in with the idea that each piece you get at a vintage store will be different, all with the same lines on them. By creating a rather simple cover i think it will bring a sense of balance to the book whilst still referencing the content within, but not in an obvious way.

I'll discuss with my client this idea once i've made it and express why i feel this is most appropriate,