Nick Wagner

I actually chose two covers that were designed for Bram Stoker’s Dracula by Penguin Books. Both designs are illustrated, my guess on the first one is a mix of vector and hand drawn. For the second one, It looks as if it was done in a pastel, regardless, both covers give off an erie vibe and the hand drawn feel is fairly effective. I like the covers don’t reveal to much about the book or state the obvious, like “showing Dracula’s face on the front cover.” My favorite would be the pastel cover of the woman who appears to be draining the blood of a man, very creepy.

1. I see everything going digital in the next ten years. The ipad especially has been revolutionizing the way we read books. Not only are books that are purchased on the ipad strictly text, they are interactive. I was doing some research and I found a great video of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ for the ipad that shows this very function.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gew68Qj5kxw

2. I am the kind of person who definitely judges a book by its cover. I find it better to visually see and physically hold the book. Feel the weight, the texture, and actually turn pages, versus a swipe of the finger across a cold glass touch screen surface. Its not just the book you read but it is the physical labor and design behind the book that makes it intriguing. 

3. This article really influenced me to design covers with more interaction towards the consumer. It’s one thing to deign a beautiful cover to draw a consumer in but it is another to make it interactive as well, to keep there interest. If it’s more interaction that people want then we need to start designing that way. 

I chose to re-design book covers for Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman. This one I decided to make it very modern and very attractive to the eye. The colors I chose a vibrant red along with a cream yellow, I made this cover as if you can flip it over and read the book the other way, I played with the title, so on one side I have grass growing from the bottom and then on the other leaves falling from the top. 

I chose to re-design book covers for Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman. This one I decided to keep it in a more classical style but at the same time a little more modern. I kept it in a calligraphy font, with falling leaves illustration on the front that compliments a ‘empty tree’ illustration on the back, and I designed a border that has a quote from the book that wraps around the outside in calligraphy font to unify the cover.

I had set up a still life in my room using objects that have a similar color scheme and textures. I chose a pair of sun glasses, ‘dog tags,’ cologne bottle and a watch. Generally the objects are all very metallic. So I used many grey scale gradients/mesh with added highlights to make the metallic texture shine. I was very pleased with the finished product, especially the detail on the watch.  

I chose to make icons that could be used for an interactive software such as a video game. I wanted to have a theme throughout the set and I came up with a pirate theme. I think it worked out well in the ending result, for ‘New’ I made a rolled up scroll to represent a ‘new journey’, for ‘Open’ I made an opened treasure chest, for ‘Close’ I closed the treasure chest, for ‘Save’ I made the scroll unrolled with a quill as if it were ‘logging events,’ and finally for ‘Exit’ I made to swords crossing each other.

lighter manual

Originally the ‘Arrogant Vodka’ idea was my first but I enjoyed this project so I made another which was the ‘SmokaBong’ based off the ‘BillaBong’ Logo.