Penguin Book Covers - Symbols

Symbol generation

During the collaging stage, instead of layering images I considered creating symbols for each of the books to reflect the key phrases and words that were found initially to better represent the stories.

Key definitions or concepts for symbols

Labels

-        A small piece of card, fabric or other material attached to an object giving information about it

-        Travelling around the Mediterranean and visiting lots of different places

Labyrinths

-        Complicated irregular network of passages

-        Complex and confusing arrangement

-        Maze like structure

Roughing it

Frontiers

-        Border separating two countries

-        Extreme limit of settled land beyond which lies wilderness

-        The extreme limit of understanding or achievement in a particular area

Labels Symbols

The use of a circle marks the general area of the place with the cross pin pointing the exact location. Cross indicates the exact position of a point, symbolises deletion and acts as a barrier (Frutiger). The use of elongated lines may indicate it is a bad place to go so marks off the area. A line is a dot in motion (Hoffman). The use of circles to indicate points and lines in-between create a sense of movement and journey from one place to the next.

Literal fabric label is reduced to simple shapes. Pins are used as ways of pinpointing the places he travelled to during the book.

Roughing It

The square creates a sense of boundary and the circle represents eternal recurrence (Frutiger). The symbol suggests moving from safety in the square to endless space in the circle.

The use of another square outside the previous one suggests a sense of movement with the boundaries expanding.

A circle provides protection (Frutiger), so anything outside the circle is uncertainty, bridging new frontiers.

Labyrinths

Using photocopies of strips of paper, abstract intertwining line drawings could be created to reflect Labyrinths. Also, the use of a rolled up elastic band created a more solid shape when photocopied. Using some found geometric stickers which were then arranged in a pattern created a complex maze like shape which could be interesting as a symbol.

Colour Adaptation

The hue of the images were also adapted to better reflect an aspect of the story. For Labyrinths, purple was used because this symbolises mystery, for Labels blue was used to represent the sea and in Roughing it gold was used to reflect gold nuggets.