Animal Farm - Colour Experiments

In a crit it was suggested that there should be an addition of colour to the design in order to life it from the page. It was suggested that this should be subtle but somehow add more meaning to the design.

I firstly trialed several coloured spines out to try and make the designs seem more considered. The red was because of the link to Soviet Russian colours, despite the fact this was something I set out to avoid. The blue spine was because I though the tone would go with the cool greys of the background, although in the end this did seem like a random choice. Finally an orange spine was trialed because it would match the Penguin logo and seem more like a traditional classic cover design. This felt too easy however and was not what the brief was asking for. The brief wanted something entirely unique.

Red type was then experimented with and it certainly meant the title popped from the page. However, it felt almost like it was detracting from the central design and the red even felt a bit too violent, especially with the thin, slanted typeface. Black felt more contemporary as the brief asked.

Finally, a slight yellow glow was placed around the pigs head in the last experiment to make it clearer that there was a spotlight on the design causing the shadow. This was a rough experiment but if made neater this could have been successful. Something about the connotations of a yellow spotlight felt too much like a crime novel though.