OUGD603 - Penguin Student Design Award (The Establishment) - Design Developments (2)

Based on initial design developments, it was decided to utilise the variation which featured a textured background, since it was thought that this worked more effectively and consistently with the textured newspaper illustration on the front cover. From this, it was decided to experiment with the composition of the spread as a whole. For the back cover, quotes were arranged in a way which was thought to reflect the idea of newspaper headlines, utilising a bold typeface which matched that used on the front cover illustration. Initially used on their own, it was thought this needed an additional element to also make the back cover more engaging. Another illustration was therefore produced of a podium which typically people of power and politicians speak at at conferences, etc. This was placed on the back cover underneath the quotes in order to reflect the idea of these headlined quotes as coming from a person of power.

With the addition of this illustration, it was thought that the spread needed an element of depth, therefore a blue strip was added to the bottom of the spread in order to almost act as a floor for the podium to stand on, whilst also creating a small pop of colour to break up all the darker, grey tones. This strip was continued along to the front cover in order to create some continuity and consistency between the front and back, whilst this also allowed for some of the negative space to be filled on the front cover, moving the newspaper illustrations up as if they are also rested on the same surface.

The tagline 'the phenomenal bestseller' was then also added to the top of the front cover, filling up more of the negative space so that this front cover does not look so empty. It was thought that this worked more effectively placed at the top, since used within the newspaper illustration, the size limited its impact and legibility. Placing this tagline at the top then also presented the newspaper 'the establishment' as a bestselling newspaper.

Due to the 'plainness' of the newspaper, another variation looked at placing another podium on the front cover overlayed onto the newspaper to continue to represent the idea of the establishment's views being promoted via the press rather than the views of the readers. It was also thought that this added an additional element of consistency between both covers.

However, when covering the back page, this larger podium on the front cover looked slightly out-of-place when seen on its own only on the front cover. For this reason, it was decided to remove this additional podium and revert back to the initial idea of placing additional text onto the newspaper like an article in order to make the cover design more engaging and mimic the experience of reading an actual newspaper. This was filled with the quote by Rene Magritte on The Son of Man, explaining how there is an interest in that which is hidden, relating to Jones' view that not everyone is who they seem until they get onstage. This was used alongside a definition of the establishment and a short description of what the book concerns so that the audience gets an insight into what the book is about before they decide to read it.

Although the quote by Magritte worked in reflecting similar ideas to that of Jones, it was thought that perhaps this should be more direct in terms of the information it is communicating. Therefore, this quote was replaced with a passage from the introductory paragraph of the book itself, so that there is more of an initial engagement between the audience and the book with a more direct link.