Adult book cover design
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
About the book
One of the twentieth century’s enduring works, One Hundred Years of Solitude has sold over 30 million copies worldwide in thirty-seven different languages.
‘Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.’
Pipes and kettledrums herald the arrival of gypsies on their annual visit to Macondo, the newly founded village where José Arcadio Buendía and his strong-willed wife, Úrsula, have started their new life. As the mysterious Melquíades excites Aureliano Buendía’s father with new inventions and tales of adventure, neither can know the significance of the indecipherable manuscript that the old gypsy passes into their hands.
Through plagues of insomnia, civil war, hauntings and vendettas, the many tribulations of the Buendía household push memories of the manuscript aside. Few remember its existence and only one will discover the hidden message that it holds …
‘Enormously, kaleidoscopically, mysteriously alive … reality and fantasy are indistinguishable’ Guardian
‘No lover of fiction can fail to respond to the grace of Márquez’s writing’ Sunday Telegraph
‘Dazzling … should be required reading for the entire human race’ New York Times
‘Sweeping chaotic brilliance … one vast and musical saga’ The Times
‘The book that sort of saved my life’ Emma Thompson
‘It’s so much fun to read, unexpected and beautiful’ Darryl Hannah
The brief
Your cover design should reflect the richness of Márquez’s writing to appeal to a contemporary, discerning, literary readership.
Your cover design needs to include all the cover copy as supplied and be designed to the specified design template (B format, 198mm high x 129mm wide, spine 26mm wide).
Tip:
The author name and the title are both immediately recognizable to the target market and as such are crucial elements in the design.
The front cover quote should help position and place the book for the market.
What the judges are looking for:
We are looking for a striking cover design that is well executed, has an imaginative concept and clearly places the book for its market. While all elements of the jacket need to work together as a cohesive whole, remember that the front cover needs to be able to work on its own and be eye-catching within a crowded bookshop setting. It also needs to be able to work on screen for digital retailers such as Amazon.
The winning design will need to:
- have an imaginative concept and original interpretation of the brief
- be competently executed with strong use of typography
- appeal to a contemporary, literary readership
- show a good understanding of the marketplace
- have a point of difference from the many other book covers it is competing against
Children's book cover design
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
An enormous, angry rhinoceros that has escaped from London Zoo has eaten James’s parents. And it gets worse! James is packed off to live with his two really horrible aunts, Sponge and Spiker. Poor James is miserable, until something peculiar happens and James finds himself on the most wonderful and extraordinary journey he could ever
imagine …
James and the Giant Peach will be fifty in 2011. First published in 1961 it has become one of the most loved of Roald Dahl’s stories, appealing to readers of all ages. Dahl was a master of language and of making up words. His stories are full of fabulous visual twists and turns.
Students are invited to design a whole new cover look for this iconic title, reinventing it for a new generation of readers, encouraging children (and adults) to revisit it and ensuring that it remains an integral part of childhood for the next fifty years.
Your cover design needs to include all the cover copy as supplied and be designed to the specified design template (B format, 198mm high x 129mm wide, spine 12mm wide).
What the judges are looking for:
We are looking for a striking cover design that is well executed, has an imaginative concept and clearly places the book for its market of both children (to pick up and buy for themselves) and adults (to buy for children). While all elements of the jacket need to work together as a cohesive whole, remember that the front cover needs to be able to work on its own and be eye-catching within a crowded bookshop setting.
The winning design will need to:
- have an imaginative concept and original interpretation of the brief
- be competently executed with 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 the many other book covers it is competing against
- be able to sit on the shelves of a supermarket as easily as it sits on those of more upmarket bookshops such as Waterstone’s
