What do we have to do?
Design a new, classic cover for Caitlin Moran's book, How to Be a Woman.
Who is the audience?Predominantly females, feminists around the ages of late teens- fifties/sixties
Deliverables?
1 x cover copy as supplied and be designed to the specified design template (B format, 198mm high x 126mm wide, spine width 20mm).
What does it need to stand for?
The design needs to feel timeless and classic, whilst at the same time making it clear to the reader that it is very entertaining and often very funny. The book should feel very accessible, immediately ‘pickup able’ and something that exists within the world of Popular Culture.
Research
Initial Findings
This is the first 'feminist' book I have read, and it was honest, witty and surprisingly full of a lot of good morals. In each chapter, Caitlin Moran elaborately comments on different aspects of womanhood from a personal, general and external perspective with the overall intention of understanding the way that women work (which can be largely complex).
The existing cover of the book features a portrait of Moran herself, a striking, gutsy and bold representative of all things female. I can already gauge that it will be challenging to make an alternative version of this cover as the image of Moran is extremely powerful. This may sound silly but it is difficult to think outside of the box when the initial and original cover is a portrait of the author themselves, standing mighty and proud at the front of their hundreds and thousands of words, how do you top that? Really? Just the concept though. The typeface and colour is pretty shoddy to be honest.
This seems to be a constant theme with Moran's books, she is the brand, this powerful feminist figure. So I had a look at the existing market for feminine/feminist books for inspiration and of course the majority feminine book covers were pink, flowery and cutesy. However the femiNIST books I came across were edgy, blunt and very 'to the point', which is similar to Moran's style of writing. Some of these examples contained imagery that others may find offensive/alarming/inappropriate etc, which is one of the best ways to grab the readers attention (in other words make them do a double take because they think they have seen a nipple).
Initial Thoughts
I started with my generic 'start-of-brief-mindmap' where I brainstormed everything to do with us women, followed by picking out some of the most memorable quotes from the book and making a few sketches from them. My ideas so far include:
- Imagery relating specifically to women, what defines us?
- Emphasising the HOW TO part, maybe doing something like an instruction leaflet?
- A womanly survival kit?
- Playing on stereotypes like being pre-menstrual, going through puberty/pregnancy etc
- A paper doll of a woman?
Plan of Action
My mind is all over the place thinking of how I can effectively tackle this brief (as well as the mountain of others we have to do right now). I may have to put this brief on the back burner for a while whilst I get other upcoming deadlines out of the way, but in the mean time I will try to jot ideas down as soon as they come to me and keep looking and researching feminist illustration and book covers.
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