ROOM 101 - design development

The concept I have come up with is to create a book cover, specifically an autobiography. This way, I will be able to fully play on the title of 'My own best friend'. I wanted to keep it humorous and lighthearted, and an effective way of reinforcing this and my quote was through the use of a book. The autobiography idea backs up my beliefs that cats are quite self involved and are not the type of animal looking for love and affection. On the other hand, a dog is said to be man's best friend.

Creating a border for book cover

I wanted to create a border that would surround the outsides of my cover. This border would be made up of objects and items that relate to cats, so that my illustration isn't wholly relying on an illustration of a cat. It will also frame the cat, much like a self portrait, which reinforces my concept. Objects in the border include:

catnip

bow

paw print

leaves

fish

flowers

To begin with, I started my designs in three different shades of blue. The brief states that a maximum of three colours are allowed, and my first thoughts were that the blue worked well with the fish and the rest of the illustrations. However, this may change when it comes to illustrating the cat itself, as it may look rather strange. 

Development

I then went on to putting the border together, and began to add type. I want the type to be quite playful, as though the cat itself somehow wrote it. I looked at a number of different layout possibilities which can be seen below. 

Initially I had created some hand drawn type, however, this wasn't effective and it didn't work well alongside the border. 

I therefore started to use a hand drawn type, which I felt complimented the border and the illustrations. I looked at a number of different ways at playing the text within the border. 

Colour development

The more I developed the design, it became much more apparent that the colour scheme I had chosen was not appropriate to the content. It reminded me of a greetings card for a baby boy, rather than what it is actually intended to represent. As I am restricted in terms of colour, I decided to see how a simple black and white design would work, this may also allow me to go on to screen printing the design with ease. 

The black and white scheme was so much more bold and stand out than the previous blue. I therefore decided to carry on using this, and began to add illustration. I initially struggled with the illustration of the cat, as I didn't quite know what the best way of going about doing it was. It was quite hard to draw something that matched the border and the type. I tried quite a playful and cartoon approach (left) but then began working on a more linear design (right). 

I then began to experiment with block colour, to see how this would effect the design. I am still uncertain as to how these designs are working, and therefore before going any further I am going to get some feedback from my peers as to what direction to head in next.