Re-Covering Design Assignment: Stephen King’s “The Gunslinger”
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Leave a comment on paragraph 1 3
¶ 2 Leave a comment on paragraph 2 0 In my new version of Stephen King’s The Gunslinger book cover I have a minimalist computer influenced design. Through the Creative Commons search I found an image that was perfect for my book cover. The original image contained two men facing each other with a mostly empty background other than the horizon and just the sun in the sky. I didn’t change the color of that image too much because the brown tones present were fairly close to my view of the imagery the first line of the novel generates, “The man in the black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.” I did change the man in the background’s colors in order to fit my portrayal of him being “the man in black.” The adversarial nature of the original image fit the nature of the book well in my thinking.
¶ 3 Leave a comment on paragraph 3 0 I added a black structure, or “Dark Tower” in the far away background to give a sense that this book isn’t just about these two adversaries, it is also about this ominous, foreboding structure in the background that seems to be watching over them. It also gives the sense that the man in black is standing between the gunslinger and the Dark Tower, and the gunslinger will have to get through the man in black in order to end his journey. The raven I included flying overhead because, similar to many of the other covers, I wanted to give a sense that death is probably going to happen in this book.
¶ 4 Leave a comment on paragraph 4 0 For the text design choices, I originally chose a sans-serif font that was much thinner but something was off about that so I looked for a thicker font. I settled on the Impact font in Photoshop because it is thick and looked like it fit better with my design to me. I included the “Dark Tower Book 1” line because many of the other covers throughout the years have included that line. I agreed with the inclusion given that it is part of a series and people who pick the book up should know that just by looking at it. The main reason I chose a dark red for the font color is because I felt the cover needed a little more color than just brown and black. I felt it needed something to draw a little bit more attention to it.
¶ 5 Leave a comment on paragraph 5 1 I tried to incorporate many of the design elements included in past covers, such as the gunslinger being shown, the raven, and the dark tower in the background in my design. However, the aesthetic of this image is different than the other covers in that they are drawn or illustrated and this looks more technical in a computer/graphic design sense.
Lloyd,
Your cover is very interesting. I enjoy the color contrast that you put into the cover and how you incorporated the opening sentence into it. I have not read this book yet but I think that the cover page you created can be insightful. I see the main character in all red but his shadow is completely black. Maybe the character has a dark past that he is trying to overcome? I have no idea.
Death is always a good thing…. In books anyways. I think we get a good sense of something bad will probably be happening with the blackness and the gun that you Incorporated into your design.
Good work, Lloyd!