OUGD603 - Penguin Student Design Award (Wonder) - Evaluation

Judging criteria:

- Have an imaginative concept.
- Be an original interpretation of the brief.
- Be competently executed with a strong use of typography.
- Appeal to the broadest possible audience for the book.
- Show a good understanding of the marketplace.
- Have a point of difference from other books it will be competing against in the market.
- Be able to sit on the shelves of a supermarket or ebook store as easily as it sits on those of more traditional bookshops.

Evaluation:

The final design shows an original interpretation of the brief and has a point of difference from the others it will be competing against in that it focuses on the broader, more important themes of the story, rather than the most obvious points which many other entries focused on, such as August's astronaut helmet and love of space. Through this, this final design also shows a good understanding of the marketplace and attempts to appeal to the broadest possible audience for the book in communicating it as an important children's book that focuses on ideas of friendships and kindness, as well as bullying within school, reflecting 'Wonder' as a book which school children can learn valuable lessons from. Due to this clear idea of setting and narrative communicated through the design, the target audience therefore may also show more engagement with the book since it is something they would most likely relate to with the design representing the social and cultural nature of school.

The final design also shows a strong use of typography in that the typeface reflects a child-like, handwritten style which works effectively with the concept of the final design. The use of type shows the title and additional information as if written by the characters themselves onto notes, representative of a part of the story in which the characters send each other notes through their lockers.

However, one improvement in terms of this to create a more interesting use of typography could have been to show the note as if posted part the way through the locker as done within the story, however it was considered that this may have distorted the type making it less bold and legible, which then may have also reduced engagement with the book.

Although the design mainly focuses on the most important, overarching themes of the story, other key elements within the story have also still been communicated in a more subtle way, using smaller illustrative elements to reflect these, an idea which was utilised in order to potentially cause more interest with the audience as to what they mean. These elements were designed as if doodles on notes and graffiti on lockers, again, to also represent the social and cultural nature of school. In addition, the blue colour scheme adds an effective, subtle element which ties the design back nicely to the original, existing book cover design.