Research
Using a combination of library and internet sources, find an example of one cover design each for the designers listed above. Document a thumbnail image (photograph or drawing) of each cover in your learning log.
Write a very brief description of each cover design and an overview of the designer. Do this in note form, using the designer and the chosen example design to visually inform how the information appears in your learning log.
Doing it this way you’ll avoid using a generic internet ‘cut and paste’ approach. By thinking about how you present the material you find, you are considering how you lay out and design visual information more generally.
In each case, note down whether your chosen design is typical of that designer’s work. Try to explain your answer.
Select
Choose two designers from the previous list and compare and contrast a cover design from each, in relation to each other. For example, how does the cover of Eldon’s The Journey is the Destination compare with a cover by Wolfgang Weingart? Do Eric Gill and David Carson’s cover designs have anything in common?
Develop
Armed with your earlier research, focus in greater depth on the design pairing you chose and explore the cover designs and their designers in greater depth. Make a drawing, sketch or tracing of the covers you’re examining from the two designers. This will give you a better understanding of the imagery, typography and arrangement within the design.
Reflect
Compare the two designs, designers and design approaches. Do they differ? How do they differ? Are the designs from different eras, produced using different technologies? These, and many more questions that you’ll generate as you begin to analyse the designs, will give you greater insight into a broad range of design concerns.
Document
In your learning log, present your research, images, notation and findings in a visually interesting way which reflects some of the concerns and values of the designers and designs you have explored.
See detailed posts for each:
Jan Tschichold
Eric Gill
Neville Brody
David Carson
El Lissitsky
Wolfgang Weingart
Sara Fanelli
Dan Eldon
Paul Rand
Phil Baines
