OUGD603 - Penguin Student Design Award (Wonder) - Final Design (To Submission Guidelines)

The concept behind this final design was to explore the school settings and themes of the story since this is where most of the book is set, attempting to take on a unique approach to the brief which avoided cliches and the most obvious parts of the story in order to help my design stand out amongst other entries. This design focuses on a part of the story whereby the main characters send each other notes through their school lockers, playing on this element as representing the social and cultural nature of school life.

The design takes on a more illustrative approach, one which allowed me to produce a playful and engaging design which young readers would typically look for when browsing a bookstore. The design features a set of lockers with ripped notes taped to the doors, this effect reflecting the idea of the characters ripping small pieces of paper out of their exercise books for use in these note exchanges. This design continues over the whole cover spread, overlapping parts of the design onto the spine which allows for consistency across the design, as well as giving the spine an additional interesting element which would potentially help it stand out further on a typical bookshelf with the spine facing outwards.

The majority of information (cover copy) has been placed within illustrative note papers, using a consistent typeface throughout, one which was chosen specifically for its child-like, handwritten texture and characteristics to more effectively represent the handwritten notes from the main characters of the story. This typeface was also chosen in that its bold nature helped it better stand out when also used on the blue background, as well as allowing the title of the book to be more prominent and clearly distinguishable as the most important piece of information.

In addition, smaller illustrations have been added to the lockers continuing to reflect on the social and cultural nature of school through posing these as elements of vandalism/graffiti on the lockers. These utilised a brush stroke which allowed these to look hand-drawn, and therefore also consistent with the child-like style of typography and were designed to subtly represent other elements of the story, such as August's astronaut helmet and his love of space.

The lockers were coloured a specific shade of blue which was thought to best represent a typical colour you find in school lockers, whilst this also presents a subtle element of consistency with the original book cover designs which utilise this colour, with a bit of depth being added to the design through the use of lighter, translucent tone, representing a streak of light across the lockers as well as a hint to the end of the story whereby everything turns out okay.