Initial Cover Experiments - The Vagina Guide - External Collaboration Brief

I did some preliminary sketches for the cover, thinking about aesthetics teenagers are likely to respond to. I wanted to make it bold and striking, whilst still being informative and stylish. I particularly wanted to play with the idea of a V, since it appears like the abstract shape of a vagina.

The V shown below is the Bauhaus typeface and it's thick and stylised appearance, plus the use of colour, means that it looks similar to the medical cross. This was intentional as the content is very much about helping physical problems. But with the addition of a quirky typeface and angular shape it creates more of a playful and approachable feeling.

I the began experimenting with making patterns with the typeface. These looked loud, and had quite a contemporary style, but without being a V alone they lost some of their impact and purpose. They seemed to look more like a pattern than vaginas - perhaps they could be edited to change this.

I then began experimenting with having the cover as an overleaf. This seemed to work nicely too and is something I will consider experimenting with further. The contrast in shapes and layering of styles makes the guide feel detailed and informative - it appears interesting and something you would want to pick up and explore.

I then created a more refined approach with a triangular shape, creating a mix between typically masculine angles/shapes and thin, considered feminine lines. This is something I wanted to explore as we have discussed not wanting to the make the guide overtly feminine - we wanted into be strong, empowering an inclusive.

The triangular design looks better with a red background, it means it has high impact and contrast. The red is powerful and although it has a feminine feeling - it is also quite powerful and not overtly girly. I also tried using the type to create the V shape instead, however I thought this looked a bit too plain in comparison to other, more detailed designs.

I also created another experiment which included 3 layers of paper, one blue. This seemed to work really well, and balanced the red colour of the cover - this is something I also want to experiment further with. I also tried having the detail written across both spreads, similar to one of the publications I looked at, and this seemed to work quite nicely.