Book cover

Examine type as image: create a book cover that explores what happens when you use type as an expressive, poetically-charged material.

Type should form the center of your concept. Combine digital type with type in physical form. We’ll do a workshop at the Design and Build Lab, but simple and low-tech interventions also offer opportunities. You may use photos of type, and images that are so abstract that they are not recognizable. Create any images yourself.

Show at least three distinctly different concepts for your project, and develop one concept through iteration and experiment.

Evaluation: depth and quantity of experimentation; connection between concept and the book; details and craft.

Specifications

• Elements: Front and spine of the book.
• Content: Use the text from a real book’s dust jacket. You may edit the text lightly.
• Trim size: Match the size of a real book. Bleeds are acceptable.
• Colors: 4CP (four-color process; full color)
• Typeface: 1–3 fonts from the list. Other fonts with instructor approval
• Software: InDesign and Photoshop

Final deliverable: upload a PDF to Canvas. Show a full-size, printed, trimmed version wrapped around a real book for critique.

Typefaces for this project

Most of these faces are available via Adobe Fonts. Some are open source. Some are more difficult to obtain licenses for—check with your instructor if you want to pursue them.

• Akzidenz Grotesk
• Archer※
• Avenir
• Baskerville
• Bembo
• Bodoni
• Caslon*
• Cheltenham
• Clarendon
• Didot*
• DIN
• Filosofia
• Franklin Gothic
• Frutiger
• Futura
• Garamond*
• Gill Sans
• Gotham※
• Goudy
• Helvetica
• Interstate
• Janson
• Jenson
• Meta※
• Miller※
• Mrs. Eaves
• Myriad
• News Gothic
• Noto Sans*
• IBM Plex family*
• Palatino
• Sabon
• Scala + Scala Sans
• Serifa
• Source Sans + family*
• Trade Gothic
• Univers

* Free/open source versions are available.
※ May require effort to obtain a license.