INITIAL IDEAS (WONDER BOOK COVER)

7JAN

The ripped part is extended to the back of the cover and this represents Auggie's dreams and imaginations are countless. I used galaxy as the pattern as Auggie loves the universe. The O of the word WONDER is illustrated as Auggie's eye to show how he is hiding his face, but at the same time is eager to live like a normal kid. 

8JAN

As many of the book children book covers are of a illustration approach, I decided to draw an astronaut. I then hand written the quotes and the title to match with the whole hand drawn aesthetic. After writing the word WONDER, I realised that the 'one' part looks really like a face, thats why I added a curve underneath them to create a smiley face. As seen, the helmet is blackened and it shows how Auggie sees himself, he feels self-conscious and that he doesn't like how his face looks, he wants to hide it under the helmet. The darkened part also indicates that how Auggie really looks isn't what we, readers should focus on. What we should really care about is the 'real' Auggie who has a lot of potentials and talents that are hidden under the helmet. 

For this design, I couldn't think of a way to layout it on the book. It could be the front cover, however, i have no idea what to place on the back cover of the book.

Auggie is breaking apart, Although he might be different from others(circles), he is growing into something beautiful and unique. [a bit messy]

The eye area is being painted into rainbow colours. The rainbow is to indicate hope, talents and dreams that Auggie has, but not showing it out. 

9JAN

The astronaut is blackened to symbolise how Auggie is couscous about himself and his own identity. The shape of a planet is used to as Auggie really likes stuff related to the universe, so the planet can kind of being interpreted as Auggie himself, that is why I placed "MY NAME IS AUGUST" inside the planet. The whole design is being illustrative to make it more attractive to kids. 

12JAN

After staring at the word WONDER for a while, I realised that the O in the word is the only one letter with no strokes. It is made by a closed counter which is like Auggie who tends to trap himself inside a hole, avoiding interactions with people and never coming out. I decided to interpret the O as Auggie and the other letters as the bullies. The bullies are packed and isolating Auggie which the O is placed further away from the W and NDER.  

I then came up with the idea of having the word WONDER repeated with the O becoming smaller each time. This is to symbolise how Auggie is being hurt each time being bullied and that he is becoming smaller and smaller, bounding himself with the circle tighter and tighter. 

Iterations were done with different styles of typeface. I really like the one on the left as the O stands out which visualises the quote "You can’t blend in when you were born to stand out."

It was a productive day today and I felt motivated. The idea above could be the 5th initial idea. I have also added a lot onto the contextual research part and I linked the research to my own design. This was my weakness in Module 403 that I wasn't quite sure how to link my research to my own work. I feel like things are getting better and more on track and I am improving gradually. After all the effort done today, I will be continue working on the back cover of the above design as well as finishing up the design board of Brief 1 which I have been adding on things bit by bit every day.