Lighter by yung pueblo book cover redesign

For our final project in CCSF Art125A 2D Design with Claire Brees, we redesigned some cover for some other art media. For example, movie posters, album covers, book covers. I chose lighter by yung pueblo.

Observations

Very silly busy. Too many book quotes in the back. Long quote on cover. Sticker.

Then there’s a lot of simple stuff. Plain yellow which is eye catching but not very interesting once I pull it off the shelf. Says very little about the content. Text design is simple, supposed to be less intimidating I think to imply that meditation is simple.

Things to take advantage of:

• Figure Ground reversal
• Color
• Direction
• Movement
• Organization

Brainstorm

I want to make a gradient from purple to red to yellow, bottom to top. This will be a visual movement of getting “lighter”.

Lighter font should be much lighter weight, maybe of it floating away? Could be a bunch of balloons lifting you up

Figure of a meditation person in the middle, legs crossed

Shadow cast by the meditator is full of words like ANXIETY, BLAME, JUDGEMENT, RUMINATION, AMBIGUITY, FEAR, STRESS, TENSION, DEPRESSION, GRIEF, PAIN, LOSS

Sketch

First Iteration

Feedback from group and profa.

Lighter letters for words

Dark yellows

Blues are too close to the blues.  Maybe mix them.

Lighter is not readable

Quote in front could easily go o

To the back

Make more gradient for yellow?

Pile of words and letters is pretty cool.  Color is less readable.

Hard geometry is counter to the text and image which is soft and yielding.  Uneven.  Maybe more radial.  Harsh and sharp.

Bring in another image for the back?

Iteration 2

1. What did you learn from the first iteration and take forward into the second? The text was not readable. It felt very geometric and rigid, which is not zen. The pile of words is interesting but the idea doesn’t really come across clearly.
2. What did you change in the second iteration? Why? How does this more clearly relate to your intended message? Instead of geometric lines, I decided to make a mountain-scape gradient to give a more natural feel, like retreating into the mountains to meditate, which is what the author did. I also altered the colors on the text to have a backdrop and sit between two background colors to make almost a figure-ground illusion to make the text look like it’s actually lifting up from the page, pushing the “lighter” feeling.
3. What are the most successful aspects of your second iteration (in terms of communication). I think it’s far more readable and feels much more fluid. I’m feeling pretty good about the design overall, though I want to tweak the colors a bit.
4. What are the least successful aspects of your second iteration? (in terms of communication). I completely removed the pile of words and want to re-incorporate it. I also feel like the back cover feels a bit empty. Maybe that’s a good thing, but it currently feels a bit unintentional.

Iteration 3

Here I lightened some yellows, centered the back text more, and added “…” ellipses to imply continuation.

Overall, I’m happy but found the yellow to be too light. I worked on my piece at night so “True Tone” in my iPad made the yellow much more yellow.

Final Submission

Made the body more yellow saturated. Overall, I’m very happy!

1. Discuss your choice of artwork to redesign – your response to the original design, and your relationship to the content (music, book, movie, etc) I chose the book cover for lighter by yung pueblo. I found the book kind of fun to read and I love the messaging of the book. It drew my attention because of it’s bright yellow color, it felt dominant, flashy, and interesting. However, the book cover did not really sell me on what it was about. It felt too simple to the point where it doesn’t convey enough to interest me.
2. What aspect of the content are you trying to communicate with your design? I want to emphasize that the book is about meditation, self-love, and improving your own mental health. I want to keep the simplistic design because the book is very straight forward and the approaches in the book are easy to apply.
3. How do your final design choices support your intended communication? (design choices = design elements and principles, ie color, image, value, balance, unity, hierarchy etc). I kept the strong yellow tones because it is what initially pulled my attention. I simplified the design elements to just be the title, author, a meditating person, and a gradual organic gradient going from a dark purple to a light yellow to symbolize a journey from darkness to lightness. I matched the design across the front, back, and spine so that the reader is lead across the whole book cover, rather than just one aspect of it. I added a lot more dark values (purple and black) to contrast against and emphasize the lighter yellows, making it feel even brighter and “lighter” than before.
4. What did you learn from the iterative process and what were the most significant changes you made? The biggest change I made was to embrace a more organic and less geometric feel. Meditation is about relaxing, releasing rigidity, and going with the flow. Organic line shapes are much more fluid than geometric and was an amazing leap forward in my design. My biggest difficulty was making things readable while having fun with colors and I found I really just needed to keep playing around with them over and over again to find something I’m happy with.
5. What do you find most successful about your final design? I’m very happy with how I kept the design very simple. I tried to incorporate a lot more information than before: self-love, meditation, enlightenment, etc. But I was able to actually simplify the design and remove much of the clutter from the page.