OUGD503 - Penguin Student Design Award - Final Designs

The final design for this competition brief takes inspiration from ideas gained through research into relevant theories presented within the book. The main theory which has been conveyed and used to influence the development of this design is string theory. In physics, this theory is a theoretical framework in which the particles of particles physics are replaced by one-dimensional objects called strings. This theory attempts to describe how these object strings propagate through space and form interactions. In visualising this theory, the cover makes use of photographic elements, featuring the planets earth, moon and sun. This use of photography was chosen over other methods of image production since research found that existing covers for this book favour this approach, and therefore in taking on a similar visualisation of content it was hoping the cover would break boundaries like this first book did in 1988, which the brief states is an important consideration.

This use of imagery has been manipulated in a more visually exciting way to better convey ideas present in string theory. For this, the planets have been wrapped physically using reels of string in order to represent how everything in the universe is linked and interacts with each other, much like the object strings present in Hawking's string theory. The brief stated that the final design must appeal to a whole new generation of readers, and it was thought this element gave the cover a playful aspect which could do just this in showing the more interesting aspects of the content within the book.

One of these planets was also replicated on the back cover and the spine of the book in order to show the design as working as one whole design, rather than treating the cover as a completely separate element. In addition, this was done in continuing to visualise the interactions present in string theory, reflecting an interaction between the front cover, back and spine. In placing this imagery on the spine, this was thought to hopefully give the design another point of difference which would make it stand out on a bookshelf amongst other books which were found to all typically use type exclusively. Smaller pieces of string have also been used on their own on both the front and back covers to act as dividers between information and represent the object strings present in string theory floating through space.

The use of the sans-serif typeface Univers was chosen based on initial research into existing cover designs which also take on this approach. Some elements of this were additionally manipulated to present a glow behind which highlighted the most important information and produced a style similar to that of glowing stars that continued to link with the overall themes of the final design and content found within the book.