Design Problem
The objectives of this book design project was to create a visually captivating book design for a fictitious book series inspired by three seasons of Netflix’s “Anne with an E". The goal was to:
1. Design a hard book cover comprising a jacket, end paper, inner title page, contents page, chapter opener page, and sample facing pages of inner text.
2. Develop a design system that could be used consistently across all three books and potentially for future releases or specials related to the Netflix series.
The design challenge lay in creating a cohesive and engaging book design that reflected the essence of “Anne with an E” while appealing to readers who were already familiar with L.M.Montgomery’s “Anne of Green Gables”. The goal was to convey the themes, mood, and characters of the Netflix TV Series and Anne of Green Gables books series within the three book covers and accompanying elements.
Design Solution
The design solution for the book covers included:
1. Studying old Anne of Green Gables book covers to understand the aesthetic and themes of the original series.
2. Selecting episode names from each of the three seasons to represent the title pages in the books, creating a connection between the TV series and the book series.
3. Extracting colors and theme images from the Netflix series to increase familiarity and align the books with the show's narrative.
4. Prominently featuring the author, Hope Jaitly, to distinguish these books as inspired by “Anne with an E” rather than traditional Anne of Green Gables releases.
The design of each book cover depicted a maturing Anne, reflecting the character's growth/ journey and the evolving (and sometimes serious) themes of each season.
The cover images were made to appear structurally consistent by expanding original images as necessary using generative expand in Photoshop Beta.
The images used in the inside cover were generated by manipulating photos from the Netflix series in Photoshop, Fotor and a stencil maker called Rapid Resizer.
The end paper included images of flowers, Green Gables, and key characters to evoke nostalgia and continuity throughout the book series. Above is a video of me illustrating how to create the end paper.
