Japanese Covers Report

SERIES JACKETS Tutor: Fraser Muggeridge Francesca Romano MA Book Design Department of Typography and Graphic Communications University of Reading 2012–13

SERIES JACKETS Tutor: Fraser Muggeridge The task was to design the covers for a series of books, either an existing one or one that we would invent. The aim of the project was to understand how covers contribute to the identity of a series of books and its marketing placement and how typographical and figurative elements can work together, culminating in using type as image. Moreover we had to explore how different materials and printing techniques contribute to the visual cover.

I decided to invent a series of Japanese literature, because not many people know it, apart from the works by a couple of very famous writers, like Banana Yoshimoto and Haruki Murakami.

I believe Japanese literature is very identifiable and possesses many common traits that span through the works by different writers, even in different times.

I wanted to focus in conveying these traits of the written works, more that on the simple fact the books are Japanese.

I had to design at least three covers and I chose from my favourite titles: – Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore, that I later replaced with Norwegian Wood, by the same author; – Kanane Minato, Confessions; – Yasutaka Tsutsui, Paprika.

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First part of the research: similar series. They either focus on just one author or they publish not contemporary literature.

Second part of the research: Japanese publications. Books are very often wrapped in both a dust jacket and a belly band, even if they are just paperbacks.

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Discovery

Similar series

Japanese publishing

Concept

After a general research on how covers help identify a book series – using the same font, the same style of imagery, similar elements’ position on the page…– I started focusing on the subject of my series.

Firstly, I had a quick look at similar series. I found a few series dedicated to the the work of singular authors, mostly Haruki Murakami, and a series of notcontemporary works by the Italian publisher Adelphi. Most of these series exploit the standard iconography associated with Japan: cherry flowers, kanji, “minimalistic” designs with red, black and white as colours, ukyio-e style images.

Secondly, I looked for peculiarities in Japanese publications trying to find something I could feed into my design to make it Japanese without having to resort to the usual clichés. I found that most of the paperbacks had both a dust jacket and a bellyband wrapped around them and that sometimes the customers get a patterned paper as a custom dust jacket for the books so that they can read is in public without everybody knowing which book that is.

This last discovery fed perfectly into my idea for the design of the covers.

The common traits in most of the books I knew, in fact, were the idea of a layered reality where one is never sure of what the truth is, even whether the story is realistic or fantastic.

I then decided that the keywords for my covers would be: – layered; – uncertain; – changeable.

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A version: a transparent plastic reveals the title, hidden in the backgound pattern

The first version of the series, with the plastic bellybands.

B version: mirrored images that creates a pattern

C version: image and title hidden in an even patter but visible from a distance

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Transformation Three proposals

With those keywords in mind I came up with three alternative type of covers: A – A layered cover with transparent bellyband uncovering the title, hidden by a pattern of the same colour as the bellyband.

B – A cover with a mirrored image made into a pattern, with a bellyband displaying the title.

C – A cover with an image hidden into a dot pattern so that the image (or the type) would have been only visible from a distance.

I decided to develop the first option. I started working with hand-drawn patterns.

I wanted them to cover the title, so that the bellyband could reveal it, but I soon realised that would have never happened so I decided to use photographs instead. tratment of the photographs These were selected based loosely on the content of the book, but more importantly on the kind of athmosphere I wanted to convey. They would have to represent somenthing, but this something would be shown in such a way that it resembled a pattern, rendering the photograph abstract.

The photographs were found on the internet, so I didn’t have a very broad choice and I had to spend a lot of time choosing the best available image I could find. I ended up with a butterfly swarm for Paprika, water ripples for Confessions and fish for Kafka on the Shore, which I later on replaced with Norwegian Wood, by the same author, as it allowed me to have a cover image that fit better with the others.

To further the transformation of the images as patterns, I experimented a bit on how to add a texture to them. In the end I printed them out and photocopied at twice the size, to give the picture an odd grain.

Plastic bellyband

bellyband I tried to render the layering concept by using a transparent, coloured plastic bellyband. At first it would have had the same colour of the pattern on the cover, masking it out and revealing the title hidden under the pattern.

Having problems drawing such a pattern I decided to have the background photograph and the bellyband in complementary colours, the title now in the same colour of the plastic. The bellyband would have hidden the title, but it would have been slanted, so that a bit of the text would show, ideally attracting the attention and inviting the reader to slide the plastic and reveal the title.

However, this solution wouldn’t have been so successful, as instead of creating interesting changes in the colour of the picture, it just flattened and darkened it.

Beside, the only kind of plastic I could find had dull colour and was too thin, so that it was difficult to slide and it ended up all crumpled. Plus, printing on clear

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Images used for the covers before and after being photocopied and scanned.

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Not selected covers, with different treatments of the slanted element.

cellophane was impossible in the facilities available to me, so I just had to give up the belly band.

Printed “bellyband”

The desired saturation can be achieved in InDesign by overlaying different copies of the same element, with different effects and transparencies applied.

I decided to try and render the effect I wanted by just printing a slanted element on the cover that would have changed the background image. I came up with four different tratments for this element, playing with the inverted image and the “colour” and “multiply” effect in InDesign. After my experimentations, two series stood up as being more interesting and I selected one of them.

The slanted element in that series transforms the background image according to the “colour” effect in InDesign. This effect acts on the underlaying image keeping its whites and transforming all the other colours in variation of the overlaying element’s colour. The effect also acts on the spine of the books, but only on the title, making it sublty change colour. font Choosing the font was another big challenge, as I had nothing to use as a rational.

I first chose Bembo because the strokes and the width of its letters reminded me of the Japanese ideograms. However, Bembo has a too strong history to be used in these circumstances, so I had to change.

Not having any other inspirations for the font to choose I opted for a sans serif, that matched one of the other Japanese writing systems, and I ended up using Franklin Gothic. I used one of the Japanese “sans-serif” symbols for the logo of the series’ fictitious publishing house.

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KA TSUTSUI A

When prototype models of a device for entering into patients dreams go missing at the Institute for Psychiatric Research, it transpires that someone is using them to manipulate people s dreams and send them insane. Threatened both personally and professionally, brilliant psychotherapist Atsuko Chiba has to journey into the world of fantasy to fight her mysterious opponents.

yasutaka tsutsui

Japanese novelist, science fiction author and actor. He is one of the most famous science fiction writers in Japan.

His Yumenokizaka Bunkiten won the Tanizaki Prize in 1987. He has also won the 1981 Izumi Kyoka Award, the 1989 Kawabata Yasunari Award and the 1992 Nihon sf Taisho Award. In 1992 he was decorated as a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French gevernment.

1 : 1 detail of one of the books’flap

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Specifications book object – 140 × 210 mm; – paperbacks, – cover printed on Fedrigoni Nettuno 200 g/m2; – the books will have flaps, to contain the blurb and info on the author and on the series and its other titles. typography – On the front page: ITC Franklin Gothic Demi 22/20 pt; – On the spine: ITC Franklin Gothic Book (author) and Demi (title)14 pt; – On the flaps: ITC Franklin Gothic Book 10,5/13 pt.

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gate editions

A collection of contemporary Japanese literature, selected to provide a significant sample of the country’s vast and peculiar imaginative world.

The titles include: K. Minato, Confessions; H. Murakami, Norwegian Woods; Y. Tsutsui, Paprika.

Front title and spine

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Haruki Murakami Norwegian Wood

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HARUKI MURAKAMI NORWEGIAN WOOD

When he hea Toru Watanab the girlfriend Immediately twenty years adrift in a wo casual sex, p – to a time w woman calle and he has t and the past

haruki mur

Japanese wr His works of garnered crit awards, inclu and the Jeru Murakami’s fi

by Japan’s lit is humorous on themes o He is conside in postmode praised him living novelis

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itions

on of contemporary Japanese , selected to provide a significant of the country’s vast and peculiar ve world.

s include: o, Confessions; ami, Norwegian Woods; i, Paprika.

Alignment of the elements in the covers

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Kanae Minato Confessions

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KANAE MINATO CONFESSIONS

Right before quitting her school teacher announce was killed by two of her s The class and the teache in charge after her are le what happened as best t with unexpected, shockin

kanae minato

Born in 1973 in a small i Hiroshima prefecture, Min 2007 with the short stor which earns her the first writers. In 2008 she write which sells more than on nad is awarded with the B