OUGD503 - Penguin Student Design Award - Crit Session

Strengths:

• The image on the spine was thought to work well - this would made the book stand out more on a bookshelf and produces consistency with the front and back cover designs.
• The texture background works effectively to produce a subtle effect to look like distant stars - reflects themes portrayed and discussed in the book
• Glow behind the title and author's name makes these main pieces of information stand out amongst the main design without them being too compromising and bold - again relates to the stars and their glow.
• Good links to theories specified within the book - for example, string theory.
• Interesting developments before coming to the design - links to research and quotes within the book.
• The cover was seen to reflect upon handmade/hands-on approaches to science at school specifically, for example through experiments - creates a different and interesting approach to the cover design.

Weaknesses:

• Needs more construction
  - the design is currently too busy - experiment with using just one of the planets as a focus point for the cover design, and potentially experiment with placing more individual pieces of string around the covers.
  - this idea of construction comes from the main focus of the book which is complex science - such theories and topics need solid construction behind them for them to work.
• Experiment with handwritten type or a more handmade approach in order to link the use of typography with the rest of the initial cover design, for example, produce cursive type from string - look at previous winners for reference.
• Even though the theories are complex, the book is fairly casually written - the typeface used in the design almost looks too technical to accurately convey the tone of the book.
• Continue to use the idea of string to connect different elements of the cover and overall design - use this to reflect how in science a lot of things are connected.
• Think more carefully about why certain decisions were made, for example, the handmade approach - this needs a rationale behind to back up decisions.
  - the cover was seen to reflect upon handmade/hands-on approaches to science at school, for example through experiments.