OUGD603 - Penguin Student Design Award (The Establishment) - Existing Cover Designs

One calling point of research was to look at the existing cover designs for The Establishment in order to see what is already out there and how the book is currently communicated. It was found that all existing cover designs for this book are fairly minimalistic and type heavy, using classical serf typefaces and off-white and black colour schemes. It was thought that perhaps this was done in order to keep the design looking quite neutral in order to not immediately impose any personal views discussed in the book onto the reader since, depending on your political views, may put off some readers if this were the case.

It was also found that most existing cover designs utilised small elements of imagery, which were mostly found to feature depictions of figures in order to represent the types of people who make up the British establishment and some of their character traits, such as hiding who they really are or what they really believe, and ideas of tax evasion and reaping huge profits.

The brief states that the cover design should reframe the book to continue to build its reach over the next ten years. It should aim to appeal to a new audience who are not only interested in understanding the spectrum of political ideas but also want to challenge the status quo. At the same time, it should feel fresh, accessible and an important read whatever your political persuasion. For this reason, the new cover design should be engaging and imaginative in order to reach this new audience.