I decided to use the folk/alt country band, Son Volt, for my book cover. I wanted to use photographs of roads, countrysides, and scruffy old buildings because I think it suits the band’s personality. I searched through my photos to find ones that would be appropriate. I had a particular one in mind that I wanted to use for the cover. It's a photo of a brick wall with a sign for the Lark Tavern on it. I thought it would be interesting to change “Lark Tavern” to “Son Volt”. I haven’t listen to Son Volt in a while, so I did a little research to make sure what I thought was their style still actually was. I found out that one of the songs on their latest album is called “Brick Walls” so that makes me feel even more confident in my choice for the photo for the front cover. I chose the photo for the back because it had a Son Volt feel to it for me and it also had a nice light sky that I think the book description will look good on. For the description I took the first two paragraphs from the band bio on sonvolt.net.

I think this design will be effective because it will complement Son Volt’s style of music and represent them in a way that will appeal people who would want to read a book about them.

I made this logo in Illustrator for my fictional publisher:

This is the photo plan to manipulate for the cover:

This is the photo I plan to use for the back and spine:

Final Draft of Awareness Poster

Here is the final draft of my awareness poster.

Awareness Poster

For this project I’m creating a poster for the American Red Cross. During the holidays blood donations tend to decrease, so I decided to make that my focus. My design is Santa with a “Be nice to me, I gave blood today!” sticker on his chest. I used the American Red Cross’s tag line “Give the gift of life” because I felt they would want me to use that tag line if I was actually making a poster of them and it fits in with the theme. I think this is an effect design because it encourages a person’s desire to give in a unique way during the holidays. I’m not sure how I’m going to treat the typography yet. I think I’m gong to use white text on a green background though.

If it’s not okay for the purpose of this project to use a current tag line, I would change the design to Santa eating some milk and cookies, or maybe just a plate of cookies and milk by a Christmas tree with the tag line “If you donate blood, you’ll get milk and cookies too.” I’m not sure if people who haven’t donated blood would know that you get cookies, though, and you don’t get milk, you get juice. Another idea would be an angel with the tag line “Be someone’s angel. Give blood.”

Here is the final version of my design.

Here's an update on the progression of my design. The first one is the most current. The second one is how it looked before I took the ladder out and replaced it with the band name.

I added swirly chrome and a chrome earth to the face plate of the helmet. I also added a chrome overlay to the space suit and a headphone cord. These are the photos that I used.

http://background-pictures.feedio.net/liquid-chrome-graphics-code-liquid-chrome-comments-pictures/i665.photobucket.com*albums*vv19*michaelmayberry77346*Fluid20Metal.jpg/

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Griffin-Auxiliary-Audio-Coiled-Cable/17032548

 http://masteringphoto.com/creating-a-cover-image-for-photoshop-essential-skills/

http://blueblots.com/freebies/40-metal-textures-for-designers/

 I found a photograph of an astronaut sitting, so I recreated the design with a realistic astronaut instead of the drawing to see how it would look. I think I like the drawing though, so I'm going to stick with that one. Below are the photographs that I used for the alternate design.

http://mrmillersstudent207.edublogs.org/2013/02/23/dreaming/

http://www.occultcenter.com/2011/01/reversed_soundtrack_jonas_brothers_satanic_song/

http://www.red5.co.uk/zumreed-x2-hybrid-headphones.aspx

Here are some revised sketches that focus in more on the space guy. I think I'm leaning towards the first one because I like the look of the long ladder. I put the band name vertically to kind of mirror the ladder.

The other two sketches focus in closer. They're both pretty much the same, I just changed the way the guy is facing. Normally I would want a figure  to be facing into the scene, but here I think it might be  better that he's facing away because it reinforces the idea that he wants to be alone. When he's facing the ladder it looks like he's waiting for someone to join him, but it might be a little more visually pleasing. In this version I put the band name on a shooting star.

I also changed the ladder from a yellow one to a shiny silver one.

http://www.aplusrstore.com/product/858/drab-ladder-hanger

The name of my band is “emergency earth escape plan”. I was reading the horoscopes at the onion.com and the Aquarius horoscope was: “Don't take it personally: Someone had to be the cutoff point for who does and doesn't get on the Emergency Earth-Escape Rocket.” I could picture it being the name of a hipster band, so I decided to use it. 

My first design idea was a rocket taking off, but I thought it was too literal. I wanted it to be more of a fantasy, so I changed “rocket” to “plan” and made the escape plan a rickety stack of ladders to the moon where he goes to listen to his records. It may not be a very good escape plan, but it’s his. I think its common for people who love music to immerse themselves in it to escape from the world from time to time, so I think this design is something that its intended audience will identify with. 

I might add some clouds above the band name. I didn’t like how they looked in the sketch so I took them out, but I think I’ll try adding some to the final design to see how they look. 

http://www.glogster.com/carolineislegit/i-wish/g-6ma7su1iqn3sls27ojo77a0

http://www.wallpapervortex.com/tag-earth.html

http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/3w0gmxF1yVX/Planet+Venus+Appears+Close+Crescent+Moon/H08UVeyFKhy

http://blog.sigmamarketing.com/2011/12/email-best-practices-ladder-of-consent/

http://retrowonders.com/crosleyportableusbturntable.aspx