Having generated my initial ideas using a mind map, I then had a group tutorial on the same day to discuss our ideas.
The first thing my tutor mentioned was to avoid using cliches. She specifically mentioned no things on fire and no icebergs. I realised fire was very cliche after doing some visual research around the climate crisis and I did notice a lot of things on fire like the earth or leaves. From my initial ideas I actually had a lot ideas involving fire. Receiving this feedback and doing some visual research led me to discard any of my ideas that involved fire as they were clearly too cliche. We were also told to think about small details early on like type setting and lock up. I’d never really thought of doing this before as I tend to focus on the main imagery straight away. Because of this I will try to consider my typography and lock up early on. However, the one problem with this is that it is always good to make type work with image. So it may be tricky to organise my type before I’ve developed my imagery. I will see how it goes as I progress and I will attempt to develop both simultaneously. My tutor also mentioned how this book carries a very serious subject matter and that to reflect this we need to create a cover that is visually not playful and that shock factor would be a good tool to use to portray the book’s solemn nature. Initially, from what my tutor mentioned I felt that illustration and other forms of recreating imagery would be off the table as something like illustration would take away from the seriousness of the book. I thought that be using real imagery (photography, collage) this would help to allude to the reader how serious the problems discussed in this book really are.
Before I began further ideation, I needed to conduct some theoretical, contextual and artist research in order to draw some inspiration. My tutor gave me 3 artists to look into that could be relevant. I will look into these next.
In terms of typography, my initial thoughts were to use a slab serif typeface. I felt this would be appropriate because it would create a serious atmosphere thus connecting to the subject of the book. I felt that it would also create a sense of urgency relating to the fact that we all need make changes to our lifestyles now in order to save the ecosystem and our world. Almost like that of a warning signal.
In terms of visuals, I felt that combining man made things (bricks, engines, etc) with natural things (trees, flowers, etc) could be really strong for visual metaphor and would encapsulate the aspect of the book that refers to how man is destroying nature. I also think there could be opportunity in using such visuals to allude to the idea that nature is fighting back against humans which my tutor suggested to me.
Josh's Graphics 