OUGD603 - Penguin Student Design Award (Norwegian Wood) - Image and Type Experiments (2)

Based on initial type and image experiments, due to the composition of the imagery in the way that the lid leans against the bottom of the jar it was thought that this left too much negative space at the top and so made it harder to position the type in an effective way that didn't look misaligned. For this reason, it was decided to develop further imagery which could fill this gap.

The idea was to use an image of a bird as if flying out of the open jar, something which was thought could potentially enhance the design's concept in representing Naoko's freedom from her illness after her death as well as a direct link to the song Norwegian Wood's lyrics in "this bird has flown". Some rough sketches were drawn out in response to this idea, exploring how the bird's form and how this could be positioned. These initially took the form of line drawings, which would then be refined and coloured digitally to produce a simple silhouette of a bird that would match the pop art style of the design and its limited colour palette.

The best illustrations were then picked out and digitally refined in order to produce this silhouette.

Initially variations using one bird were produced, placing this both in and out of the jar, however was felt that in both variations this still left too much odd negative space either on the background or within the jar, therefore it was decided to explore the use of two birds.

Using two birds, one in the jar and one outside the jar, was thought to work more effectively in utilising the odd negative space around the design. It was thought that this did not only enhance the initial concept, but the use of two birds also related to a key scene at the start of the book where Watanabe is remembering a time with Naoko and describes a the image of two birds leaping out of the forest, foreshadowing the end of the story.

Type surrounding this was also continued to be explored through colour and placement to show what works most effectively in the composition of the imagery, for instance, aligning the letters 'N' and 'W' in the two words of the title in order to fill more of the negative space produced by the imagery, making this placement look less out-of-place.

Other variations looked at combining both black and white text through overlaying and manipulating outline strokes to see whether these could better mimic the pop art aesthetic, however it was decided these did not work as effectively as the variations above.

In addition, it was also thought to explore how the use of type could be made stronger and more a part of the imagery. This was done in producing an illustration of a ripped piece of paper in the same pop art aesthetic as used throughout the rest of the design and placing the title of the book within this, using this to represent the torn paper Naoko left her suicide note on, whilst the bold nature of this also makes it look as if a piece of propaganda, representing the underlying political aspects of the story. 

However, perhaps this makes the design look too much like a comic book and a bit too gimmicky, potentially taking away from the seriousness of the themes present within the book?