ANIMAL FARM DEVELOPMENT

BRIEF

We are looking for a cover design which will reflect the book’s status as one of the great modern political allegories of our time, as relevant today as it was when it was first published over 50 years ago. It is rich with ideas, characters, allegory, political and moral philosophy – read it and decide for yourself how best to showcase the content of this remarkable novel through your cover design and bring it to a new generation of readers.

CONCEPT

Farm animals on a field during a conflict surrounded by smoke (inspired by war photography).
Revised Concept: A marble sculpture of a pig symbolising the effects of an unsuccessful dictatorship.

RESEARCH

Penguin Books History:
Penguin Books is a British publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane, his brothers Richard and John. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence, bringing high-quality paperback fiction and non-fiction to the mass market.

Penguin’s success demonstrated that large audiences existed for serious books. Penguin also had a significant impact on public debate in Britain, through its books on British culture, politics, the arts, and science.

Animal Farm Synopsis:
Animal Farm is a short novel by George Orwell. It is based on Joseph Stalin’s betrayal of the Russian Revolution. Orwell wrote it because he wished to destroy what he called the “Soviet myth”. Like Nineteen Eighty-Four, the story is one of the most famous political allegories in the world. It is about a group of animals who rebel against the humans who run the farm they live on and run it themselves with hopes of being equal, free, and happy. In the end, however, the new rule becomes a cruel tyranny of its own led by the pigs. It was written during World War II and published in 1945. Although rejected by several publishers, when published it became a best-seller. Today it is widely accepted as a classic.

Book Covers:
A book cover is any protective covering used to bind together the pages of a book. Beyond the familiar distinction between hardcovers and paperbacks, there are further alternatives and additions, such as dust jackets, ring-binding, and older forms such as the nineteenth-century “paper-boards” and the traditional types of hand-binding.

A large majority of books of which are mass produced are usually one of three cover types; paperback, a hardcover case Wrap, or a hardcover dust jacket.

Book Cover Conventions:
Book covers generally include the same information. These can include:
Barcode, publisher, and list of testimonials see on the back cover.
Price, category, and short description seen on the front inside flap.
Author photo, name, title, website, and credits seen on the back inside flap.

Book cover clichés:
Book cover clichés and how they can sell more as customers can easily recognise their genre.

An effective book cover needs to grab a potential customer’s attention, be striking, clean and professionally made, but also let readers know instantly the genre of the book. The cover will often convey the geographical locations and main character’s age and sex. To make sure readers know the genre immediately, they will use fonts and colours that match the general design standards for that genre.

An effective book cover will also be similar to other best-selling books in the genre. This is so that readers will associate your book with other books that they liked or have heard positive reviews about.

Animal Farm Book Covers:
Ever since Animal Farm’s publication there have been many incantations of book covers from its original ‘Penguin’ release to its most contemporary iteration.

Its first cover published by Penguin saw it dressed in the iconic orange and white tri-band cover design, typeset in Bodoni Ultra Bold, first created in 1935. At the time, these covers had a unique visual style that were instantly recognisable on any bookshelf.

In 2008 American graphic designer and contemporary street artist Shepard Fairey was approached by Penguin Books to do his take on the cover art for the literary classics, “1984” and “Animal Farm.”

These offset lithographs feature signs of communist symbolism, such as the stars and the use of the colours black and red. The use of cream, as opposed to white gives the book cover an aged appearance.

Animal Farm’s 2013 book cover features a duotone background image of a field and stormy sky, paired with a painted script typeface. This book cover is very simple in theory, with minimal elements; whilst easily conveying the book’s genre.

CONCEPT CONT.

Initial Concept:
My initial concept was inspired by war photography. This cover would envision the effects of a revolution on civilians (farm animals) and how leaders (Napoleon, Snowball) can capitalise from it. War photographs involve photographing armed conflict and its effects on people and places.

Revised Concept:
My revised concept includes durable marble sculptures as a commemoration to historical events, and as a juxtaposition to the concept of a revolution, where a new system is incorporated but the problem still persists.

Many statues are built on commission to commemorate a historical event, or the life of an influential person. This would infer that the pigs commissioned the statue for themselves as a way to commemorate their positive business relations with the humans.

Many statues are intended as public art, exhibited outdoors or in public buildings. For my book cover I considered eroding the statue of the pigs to represent the idea of the partnership being short-lived.

RESEARCH EFFECT

From my research I found that I would like to further concentrate on creating a false sense of security and unity through the use of statues and other propaganda.

DEVELOPMENT

To initiate my development process I took images of a field/park to be used as the background for my book cover.I decided to source images of a pig and smoke online as I believed that it would be beneficial as it would save a large amount of time, could have a better quality, and there are more options if I decided to go a different route with my design.I combined these separate images in Adobe Photoshop to create a cover that was visually similar to what I had described in my concept.I used a sans serif typeface for my title, and “Museo” - a sans serif typeface for all other text featured on the document.

MY FEEDBACK

Within a studio session I briefly presented my work to my module leader and peers in its current state. Notable feedback that I received included:

The pig’s foot is visible through the smoke.
The title and main body typefaces do not go well together.
The title does not fit the theme of the book. Too bold/why is it three dimensional?
It needs to be clearer that the pig is involved in conflict.

MY AMENDMENTS

From this feedback I made a number of changes. I edited out the pig’s foot, replaced the title’s typeface, and framed the shot differently so that the pig was larger and more defined on the page.

FURTHER DEVELOPMENT

Even after I had made adjustments from my feedback I was unhappy with the result of my book cover and decided to develop my other concept.
To reiterate, my revised concept involved a marble sculpture of a pig symbolising the effects of an unsuccessful dictatorship.

To restart my cover I firstly found a picture of a sculpture in an art museum in Geneva, taken by Samuel Zeller. I used this royalty free image as the basis of my design. With this I edited an image of a statue of a pig into the scene. Along with this I also edited in the title as engraved text placed behind the statue.

I decided against using marble as a background on the spine as opposed to having it white so that it would be clearer and more legible to viewers.

SUMMARY

I used the knowledge that I gained from my research on Penguin, Animal Farm, book covers, and previous iterations of animal farm book covers to mould my ideas into a concept that fulfils the brief. I also used feedback to highlight main issues whilst gaining a greater understanding of how readers would relate with the book.

OUTCOME

As my conclusive outcome I produced a book cover taking into consideration all of the parameters that I had been set. This book cover would optimally be printed as a soft cover on uncoated paper giving the paper sturdiness and minor resistance to light damage. As the outcome was created for a competition brief I produced my cover with crop marks and bleed.

CONCLUSION

I believe that my final products fulfil the brief as I have created a cover design which reflects the book’s status as one of the great modern political allegories of our time.

I have used my cover to showcase the content of this remarkable novel and bring it to a new generation of readers.