Looking into existing The Outsiders Book Covers

I thought it would be a good idea to look at different designs of the books we have design a cover for to get more of an idea of what i could do for a cover and what other people have done and how they've interpreted it. I began looking at some book covers of The Outsiders.

http://www.penguin.com.au/jpg-large/9780141314570.jpg

This is one of the current and main book covers for this book and this is the puffin version of the book. With this cover it uses a photo of some of the characters with a black and white tint and a black book cover background. A lot of books use photo's for their cover and sometimes it can look appealing and can work well but also can be a lazy way out of designing a book cover. The characters i think are Ponyboy, Darry and Sodapop. These three are family and are a huge part of the story and the book is in Ponyboy's perspective most of the way through. The reasoning behind using this imagery is it gives the gang a restrictive a family look about it like sticking together and standing up and helping each other out. With Darry in the background in the shadows more it gives him a meaner and darker look about him whilst Ponyboy and Sodapop stand out more. The overall style of the image is dark and strong, easy to tell the books themes are based around gangs and crime. 

Despite the imagery working well and relating to the plot some other elements look a bit ugly and unappealing. For example the name of the book with the strong colour of red. The use of red does stand out and gives a bold look to it but since gold/yellow is used a lot too on the cover i think that the name of the book being gold or even just white would work better than a sharp red which not only looks ugly but makes the overall appearance less attractive to look at and makes the cover look a bit mucky and less structured.

http://theoutsiders.wikia.com/wiki/File:The_Outsiders_Book_Cover_1.jpg

Here's another book cover for The Outsiders where the designer of the book cover used elements from the story and displayed them by making them segmented and what helped to add to it was making the segments look scruffy by adding a shredded look to each segment giving that rough, messy, gang feel to it. The segments with the knife, gun, persons eyes, sunset, movie seats help to give an overview of what is contained within the story. So the knife and gun tells us there is going to be murder, danger, crime, gangs etc. So these elements segmented onto the book cover in a scruffy fashion helps to understand before getting the book what might it be about and tells us what kind of genre it is, which is important to do so when people see it a shop they get an idea what the book is about and if they would be interested in reading it.

The colours on this cover are very strong and vivid which helps to make it look appealing and eye catching. The use of the sunsets and the face as well as the gun and knife give it boldness and strength through both the imagery and colours which compliment each other and make it all that more stronger visually on a whole. The type is almost centered in the middle of the book and is a bold font with it being a serif text. It helps to give it a bold and strong look about it and the name of the book and works well with the strong imagery too.

Overall i'm fond f this book cover because of the strong use of imagery, colour, type and the way they incorporated it all together as almost a collage piece summarising the strong through the visual elements which are segmented in a scruffy way to add to that gang theme.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lvgnslDZBk1qad3svo1_500.jpg

Here is another example of a book cover for this book and this one is a lot more basic than the other two and to be honest a lot more boring. The combs is significant to the Greasers as they have greasy hair and use a comb a lot. There is the use of the anomaly principle where it has a range of images the same and one odd one out which is what the cover does with the combs. The fact that the combs are the only imagery makes it feel boring especially since the combs haven't been drawn and rather been googled or something and placed on a straight line and got another different one and make it look the odd one out. I think the use of the anomoly is used to represent Ponyboy in comparison to the other greasers. So the use of combs represents the other greasers perhaps and he feels the odd one out and is different from them.

The background is very plain and the typography is somewhat well used but overall the design of the book is fairly boring even though it relates to the book and has used anomoly principle it still looks unattractive because its too plain and not much going on in it but is a good concept. Maybe if they had used a black background or a white one and contrasted the colours of the combs and then had one odd one out it might have worked better and also have illustrated it themselves would of been handy as well.

http://cargocollective.com/jacobnall/Book-Cover

This example above is probably my favourite design out of the ones i've seen so far as it has a fresh modern feel to it but again relating back to the 1950's - 1960's with the use of  limited colours, making it look slightly pop arty as the book was set a little after that time. The colours aren't too overwhelming and the limited colours gives it a structured feel to it and makes it look neat and well brought together. The illustrations aren't amazing but simple and work well something that looks appealing and would catch your attention on a book shelf in a store.

The use of imagery is to emphasise what a greaser usually carries on him, and it also relates to the genre of crime and gangs with the use of the knife. the imagery of the comb cigarette, knife, key, ring and cherry is placed in an organised manner and makes the appearance of the book with the colour contrasting with the images and background stand out and work really well.

Overall i really like tis design as its not overwhelming type, imagery and layout looks structured, neat and nice on the eye and the colours make it look vibrant and eye catching with the contrasting colours of black, reds and the textured tinted colour.

http://padillustration.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/outsiders-book-cover.html

With this design it is referencing a segment of the story, which is one of the most important scenes of the book. the colours are only a small palette which makes it look simple but affective. The burning church is very powerful and is eye catching, however it doesn't use anything to make it look like a gang crime rebellion book. The illustrations are good and give it a visually appealing look about it. The contrasts with oranges and dark grey's work well and helps to make the fire that much more stronger and visually striking. The typography is a san serif to make the book look more modern and updated. It helps to structure the book a lot more and compliment the imagery with this typeface.

Obviously there isn't information in the back fro whatever reason, perhaps the were designing a book cover for this book and were currently working on it. But overall it is a good book cover but for me doesn't emphasise rebellion gang fighting crime to me but more something against religion or something so it isn't clear its a gang teenage crime type of book.

http://www.behance.net/gallery/Puffin-Design-Awards-The-Outsiders-Book-Cover/11775265

I then found someone who had already made a book cover for The Outsiders and worked to the same brief as i am currently.

This really is good, its eye catching beautifully illustrated book cover and has a 1950's to 1960's feel to it from the type of car which is the main focus of imagery in this design. This design  would attract both adults and teenager. The main focal point is the car and stands out well. The title looks like its personally made and did brush strokes to give it that greasy, oily mechanic feel to it which relates to the car. Overall this looks amazing and looks like i have tough competition.