Looking at the existing book covers

To get an idea of the sort of covers that these books already had I decided to look at a number of there existing ones in the hope of finding some inspiration. 

First off I looked at book covers for the wind in the willows and the key themes that stood out were the nature scenes being used as the main imagery linking with the green colour schemes as well as the at least on of the four main characters being  visible.  Like this cover here for example the colours are bright and colourful which works well for the target audience as this is a childrens book, the target audience will be also be attracted by the animal characters previously mentioned. The cover shows a nice scene and the viewer can see that the animals are friends and gives a calm feel to the cover. This cover works well but the rest of the covers I found are very similar so there's nothing that original or standout, most covers feature the boat and the characters as mentioned above. 



The colour schemes also change a little but the majority are just a mixture of greens to go with the different outdoor scenes on the numerous covers. There were a few covers that stood out a little though as they moved away from the river bed scene. 

This one for example shows the characters arriving at toad hall together the imagery is specific and shows a key elements from the book such as the characters, the car and toad hall. It also shows part of the story as well as key elements I think this cover works as it shows who's in the book and also suggests what it is about. For example the mansion and the car play a big part in the story and obviously the characters do as well. As mentioned above it moves aways form the river bed scene so the colour feature less green and more browns it is still colourful but not as colourful as the previous cover. 





This cover is the other cover that stood out to me as the colours are completely different from the ones above, this is because it moves the scene of the cover to part of the story where badger is met in his snowy cabin. This meant the greens from previous covers don't feature which is good as it mixes it up when looking at the covers together. The cover art style is also not as cartoony as the over covers adding a more serious feel to the book. One thing about this cover however is even though it is a scene from the book it gives off a christmas feel with the snow and the attire in the cover at least to me make it seem like a christmas story. 

Overall however looking at these covers the ideas behind them are taken from key parts or scenes of the book and all feature at least one character. Because of this the different covers work for the book however a lot of the covers are pretty similar featuring the character the boat and the river bed, so I found the art style of the drawings to have a big impact as to which cover you prefer.  




The Big Sleep covers - 

The other choice of book was the big sleep which had a very different style of book cover to the wind in the willows and looking through a range of covers for the big sleep it was interesting to see the range of art styles and covers. They ranged from film noir style to cartoon style drawings, there was also a mix of colours used throughout the covers. The imagery of the covers was similar however all using character, items or scenes from the book, the cover on the left for example we know the man is detective Marlowe from the book.  This particular cover uses the film noir style with the atmospheric feel the emphasis on the smoke as well as man looking like a generic detective from film noir cinematography.  This cover also has a more serious feel than some of the other covers I looked at this comes a real photo being used also with no expression visible from the man it aids a sense of mystery to the cover. 





This cover greatly contrast with this one above with a completely different feel and look using bright colours and hand drawn imagery.  This cover moves away from the film noir style and gives more of a classic feel as a murder mystery the gun however does keep a level of seriousness to the book cover.  Also the hand drawn style is more eye catching than the photo because of the colours and the size of the imagery the gun is central on the cover and red colour contrasts with the yellow. 











This cover is a mixture of the other covers I have looked at above in my opinion because it combines the film noir style with hand drawn imagery.  The colours really compliment each other well and the red doesn't overpower the grey or change the fell of cover to dramatically. It is also not a bright red so it fits the gritty film noir theme of the cover and could be interpreted a blood. The imagery used on the cover works really well in my opinion and the man in the trench coat is obviously the main detective character also the positioning so he goes under the red square which works well in covering it up rather than blacking the face out.  I really like this cover as the cartoon art style has been mixed with the film noir style and I think it works really well. 




This is the original book cover of the big sleep very simple probably because it was designed in the 1930's when the book was published. The colour scheme of the cover is basic with three colours being red, blue and white the typography is interesting however as it appears to float above the cover with it's shadow underneath the perspective is also add to the floating effect in the way it is positioned.