New media CMT 3331 M00429668 Anish seshadri
REFLECTIVE REPORT (Coursework 1)
Topic: Book Cover Design & Concept
The theme of my book cover is based on a spy thriller / fiction. The book is set in Germany and the
cover shows a mysterious castle. The idea behind the book is to narrate a fictional story about a spy
who tries to solve the mystery of the castle serpent. The spy travels throughout Europe to find clues
which lead him to Germany where he discovers ancient military myths about the Vikings and then
discovers that the serpent is actually a bowl that contained poison and used during Viking magic
rituals.
During my vacations in 2011, I visited the United Kingdom & thereafter went for a Europe tour where
I was highly fascinated by the castles along the Rhine River in Germany. The castles were enchanting
& every move along the Rhine River made the moments more special. Over the entire journey, I took
many pictures but when this book cover came to mind, I immediately decided to use the images of
German castles. There were more than 27 castles along the Rhine River, but one that inspired me the
most was the ‘Katz Castle’.
The pictures were taken with a simple but effective camera, the Sony Cyber-shot. I decided to use this
camera because one of its qualities is that it had a 14MP (mega pixel) camera. Using this camera, I
was able to capture the images the way I wanted. It was impressive to capture clear images, colour,
brightness and the photos were very sharp. The camera also had features like auto zoom, focus, flash,
effects, etc.
The software I used to create the book cover was Photoshop (Image editing). As I was familiar with
the features and tools of Photoshop, I found it easier to manipulate & thereby create this cover.
I started off by resizing the image accordingly to me need, selecting the book cover to be an A4 size. I
used the image of the castle and blended in the darkness effects on the image. After a series of
different darkening effects, I used Photoshop’s image merging techniques. I created layers of colour
alterations, contrasts & brighteners around the image of the castle. Using an image of a gloomy sky
with clouds, I created a more realistic look. I used a burn tool to give an effect of grey clouds. To give
it an element of thrill & spookiness, I added the birds around the castle.
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New media CMT 3331 M00429668 Anish seshadri
I decided to keep the spine of the book simple with prominent text. The name of the book, which
wasn’t too hard to decide as I was clear with my theme, is ‘The German Serpent’.
In conclusion, I learnt many new concepts while working on this project. It was the art of storytelling which appealed to me the most, as I had to create a synopsis for the story on which the cover of
the book was designed. While designing the cover I had to incorporate elements of darkness and
mystery into the picture as this was needed to support the mystery contained in the story I had chosen.
Adding the elements to the picture using Photoshop was a new and enriching experience. Photoshop
follows the commands of the user and the end result is a satisfactory image, a combination of many
individual layers all arranged in a cascaded manner, to produce the final image.
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