M4 CP - Book Cover Design (Part 2)

For my project, I chose to re-design a cover for the book "Forever" by Pete Hamill. It's a story of a man who came to New York in pursuit of a blood enemy - an earl who killed his parents. He is then granted immortality and lives through centuries, but his immortality has a price: he must stay on the Island of Manhattan.

Stories of immortals are popular. They give us one person's perspective on life through the lens of centuries. As a result, I believe that the combination of this particular image and the name of the book "Forever" makes for an intriguing cover. It conveys the book's idea and has a minimalistic design with high contrast, effectively attracting one's eye.

I utilized the gestalt principles outlined in the reading material. The image continues from the front to the back of the cover, then fades into solid black. The color scheme is simple: black and white, which makes it easy for our brains to process. The barcode's background is dark grey to mute it compared to the rest of the elements, but still legible for the scanner.

In addition, I included a mock-up downloaded from https://mockups-design.com/ and edited it to show what the finished book would look like.

Draft in Photoshop:

Here is the original book cover, which was published in 2003 by Back Bay Books:

"The Gestalt Principles" by Interaction Design Foundation:

https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/gestalt-principles

Book mock-up by mockups-design.com

https://mockups-design.com/free-book-mockup-5/

How to Design a Book Cover in Photoshop by @howtechgraphics

https://youtu.be/ITe3AfVCGYk

Ted Talk by Chip Kidd "Designing books is no laughing matter. OK, it is." https://www.ted.com/talks/chip_kidd_designing_books_is_no_laughing_matter_ok_it_is