Graphic Design: Peter Pan Book Design

This post is about a book design cover I created for the Peter Pan story.

It was an exercise from a book titled Graphic Design School. The tasks were as follows:

1. Select a classic novel that you have read and are fairly familiar with. Consider the story-line, the message and the overall tone of the writing. Make a list of the most influential elements in the novel such as characters, circumstances, defining events, time periods. Define the target audience for the novel. Select a key theme for an image that represents this novel, draw it, stage a photograph of it, research archival images, come up with as many creative means to visually represent this theme.
2. Sketch 3-5 ideas from your list that best illustrates your concept for the book’s cover. Choose a final design idea.
3. Develop and finalise the design by using traditional media or digital media

Why I chose the Peter Pan story

The Peter Pan story is about a boy who never grew up. He lives in a place called Neverland. He travels to London and takes Wendy and her brothers to Neverland. This is the start of an adventure that involves pirates, mermaids, flying and more! I chose the Peter Pan story because I loved it as a child. I have great memories watching the Disney Peter Pan film and being in awe of the characters, scenes and amazing animation. I also loved watching Hook, which is another version of the Peter Pan story. This time, Peter pan is an adult who forgets who he is, until he returns to Neverland. The 2003 Peter Pan film is the closest to the original book written by J.M.Barrie. I read the book as an adult. I love the book and film. It’s magical.

Research

The first thing I did, was to make a list of the characters and defining events of Peter Pan. I also wrote down the target audience which is children.

Above: Images of character list and defining events of Peter Pan

After much deliberation, the key themes selected were “flying” and “adventure”. I feel that these words represent Peter Pan really well. One of the first things I like to do during my research, is to come up with a list of words. This helps me generate ideas.

Above: Image of the first words that came into my head

After the research period, I like to start sketching. I created sketches based on the research gathered.

Above: Image of sketches

I really wanted the design to reflect the themes “flying” and “adventure”. The book cover is like the window to the book’s soul. It gives you an insight of the world you are about to enter. This is what I wanted to create through the design. A sense of flying, adventure…and freedom.

Final Design: Above is the design I chose

The next step was production. I decided to use the Photoshop software to make my design come to life.

The main element of the design is the image. So I browsed the internet to find the perfect image. The key words that were searched for were: “boy flying” and “boys jumping”. I managed to find a silhouette of a group of boys jumping from iStock. I really like this image.

Boys Jumping

Image of silhouettes

I used the magic wand tool to eliminate the white background. I wanted to created a focal point that grabbed the viewer’s attention immediately, so I placed one of the images in the centre, and increased the size so that it filled the majority of the design. I used the emphasis principle by creating an outer glow and an embossed effect. I also stylized the image by using a leafy texture. The contrast principle was used with a darker green colour and the bright outer glow. I chose the colour green because this is the colour that is most associated with the character. Calmer colours such as blue tend to be used for backgrounds because it appears to be further away from the viewer. I used a blue colour that is associated to the evening. It’s dark but not too dark. I remember watching the famous scene in the Disney animated Peter Pan film, where Peter Pan flies across London with Michael, John and Wendy, and the sky was a medium dark blue. That is what I was aiming for.

I chose four further images to surround the main image. I used the dominance principle to create volume and further enhance the main image. The four images are black with two of them being the same image. The colour black and the repetition creates unity. I also changed the scale of the images, so that they appear to be much smaller than the main image. I really like the images because they create a sense of flying and freedom.

I used a serif font because it symbolises an older and more classic period. Sans-serif fonts tend to feel modern but I wanted the typography to feel older or classic. I chose a very light blue colour which slightly matches the outer glow of the main image (which is white and yellow). I edited the angle of the fonts so that it matched the motion of the main image, steering it upwards. The letter “P” for “Peter” and “Pan” are closely linked but the rest of the letters slightly spread out. It’s as if the fonts are also flying.

Image of final design

To finish, feel free to listen to a wonderful soundtrack below from the 2003 Peter Pan film. It is one of my favourite film soundtracks. It really represents the feeling of wanting to fly. So what are you waiting for? Fly!

Conclusion

I had fun creating this design. It took me back to my childhood and made me think of all the wonderful memories I had with this story. I had the opportunity to work on design principles such as balance, unity, dominance and contrast. I used Photoshop to bring my designs to life. I used inspiration from the Peter Pan films and music. Overall, it was a great experience.

Lastly, wherever you are in the world. Remember that “to live would be an awfully big adventure“.

To see other designs, feel free to check out my portfolio.

Ciao for now!

The VFX Festival 2016: A Recap

It’s been exactly two weeks since the Visual Effects Festival 2016. I had the opportunity of going to Day 2 of the VFX 2016 in London’s 02 Arena. I purchased the ticket a couple of months before the event on the 24th February. This was the second time I went to the festival. The first time I went was in the year 2013 in November. I went as a final year student. My dissertation was on the topic of VFX. The research was based on a report published in 2010 about the UK and the VFX and video games industry. It stated that the UK was not producing job ready graduates at the time so I wanted to see if that was still the case. I really enjoyed the event that time as well as this time round. In 2013 the venue was at the Vue cinema in Leicester Sqaure, this time out it was actually at the 02 Arena, specifically located in the Cineworld section.

Items found in VFX Festival 2016 Goody Bag

The programme for day 2 started off with Climax Studios’ Glenn Brace talking about the creative preproduction of Assassin’s Creed Chronicles. The ‘Women in Industry Panel’ was around about the same time with speakers including Kati Russell (Play in Progress), Michelle Blok(Third Floor), Lisa Maffi(Bleed VFX), Tessa Map(Aardmann), Jenny Richard Saunders(Women in games), Claire Norman(Milk VFX) and Gina Jackson(NextGen Skills Academy). One of the awesome things about the event this time round was that there were talks going on all the time, so you could leave one screening/talk and head to another. It made for a better experience. However it did mean you had to pick and choose which made it impossible to attend all talks/screenings, unless you split the timing between events that cross-overed.

Neil Kidney giving a presentation about life at a small studio(Seed Animation).

Keeping an Animation Studio Animated was the last talk of the morning by Blue Zoo’s Tom Box. MPC’s work on The Martian was at midday showcased by Sebastien Gourdal and then both Barry Corcuran(Rushes) gave a presentation on motion graphics and digital storytelling for spectre Neil Kidney on life at a small studio with his company Seed Animation. Five more talks happened during the afternoon: Motion Graphics Ways by course leader Jose Blay and Get in the Game Careers Talk by Sharan Bassi’s Aardvark Swift. A Careers/Recruitment Panel which included Tom Box(Blue Zoo), Anna Swift(Framestore), Omar Morsy(MPC), Glenn Brace (Climax Studios), Alison Arnott(Bluebolt), Tessa Map(Aardman) and Henry Bull(The Mill). The last two talks were via the director Hasraf Dulull of Haz Film who spoke about the use of VFX to create proof of concepts and last but certainly not least Framestores’ very own Peter Penn…I mean Stuart Penn who spoke and displayed the VFX works on the film Pan, 2015.

Flying High: Escape Studios Retweeted a Post of Mine about the Event.

I managed to go to three of the talks on the day. I actually got to the event in the afternoon so sadly missed a few talks. The first of the three talks I went to was Neil Kidney’s ‘Small Studio Life’ talk where he spoke about life at a small studio situated in London’s Soho. Neil is an Irish man with a lot of humour and is the founder of the studio Seed Animation. I found the talk very interesting and thought provoking. I had never really thought about what it would be like to work in a small studio. He mentioned some of the pros of working in a small studio such as having a real independent feeling about their work, awesome relationships where colleagues feel more like friends because of the constant contact with one another in a small environment and some of the cons such as having to compete with the bigger companies who have better resources and jokingly the bad music played by co-workers. All in all working in a small company didn’t sound bad at all.

Career Recruitment Panel

Next talk I went to was on the topic of recruitment. This event was pretty much packed to the brim so I was glad to get a seat. It was a very interesting discussion which started off with the question ‘What educational background do you need?‘. The general consensus was that whatever qualification you had didn’t really matter, what mattered most was your showreel and/or your portfolio. Interestingly Henry Bull(The Mill) did mention that real gems can still be found through those who aren’t exactly very skilled(i.e. average in skill) but show a great passion for the industry and what they do. The next question that followed was then ‘What makes a good showreel?‘. Making it relevant to the company you’re applying to was brought up by Tom Box(Blue Zoo). The same views were expressed from Tessa Map(Aardman) and Alison Arnott(Bluebolt).

If you meet someone and there skills are *average* if actually they’re just really buzzing to get into the industry, you really should give those people a go as well because usually they make some of the best art because they work so so hard – Henry Bull, The Mill.

Having a clear breakdown of what it is you did exactly was another point made by Framestore’s Anna Swift. Best work first, or even best work only was also expressed by the panel. Adding other areas which shows a wider sense of interest is also a great thing to showcase such as life drawing work, photography etc. In terms of ‘How to show passion?‘, researching your chosen company and having pride in your portfolio were stated as good ways to show passion. Believe it or not, but Tom Box(Blue Zoo) stated he had received many emails from people who had typed in the wrong company name at the start of the email(Yikes indeed).

Only put the stuff in that’s most relevant to what you can do now – Glenn Brace, Climax Studios. Pointers on a good showreel.

A good question by a member of the audience was ‘What was the percentage for how many people applied to a role compared to how many people were actually good enough for the role?‘ Aardman’s Tessa Map said that out of a 100+ applicants that applied to a recent position only 20% were good enough for the role and Tom Box said only 10% for Blue Zoo.

Glamour Galore: Brit Awards 2016 Took Place Later in the Evening.

The last event I went to was the icing on a very tasty cake(or was it the cherry?). It was Stuart Penn(Framestore) who gave a talk and presentation on the VFX work on the 2015 film Pan. I thoroughly enjoyed this presentation and it made me really want to watch the film. It was interesting to see the ins and outs of the behind the scenes in terms of visual effects. So much work goes into it. An example of this is when Stuart Penn described building a rig in order to keep track of damaged cloth on the sails of the ship ‘were a little bit painful’. Framestore also had to build cloud volumes instead of matte paintings as props or characters such as the ships had to go through them. A fun fact was that the 80 foot-long crocodile was based on a crocodile in the San Francisco zoo. The crocodile, named Claude, is an albino crocodile.

A favourite for Stuart Penn was the creation of the mermaids. The director, Joe Wright, wanted a different look to the mermaids than the familiar scaly look. So a lot of underwater photography of cloth and water took place. References were taken from jellyfish and squids. Cara Delvinge played all the mermaids so, impressively, they body scanned her and then built a fully digital version of her.

The sails on the ship were a little bit painful because as they fly further and further through the sequence they get hit by canon balls, so we had to build a rig to keep track of which bits of cloth were damaged’–  Stuart Penn describing one of the more challenging scenes to create.

So I guess that’s pretty much it for this post. I really enjoyed my time at the event and I look forward to revisiting the festival next year. Ciao for now.