Topic Proposal:
I have chosen the design on the front back and side cover's of the book "House of Leaves" by Mark Z. Danielewski. The design on the covers is dark and engimatic featuring little color and designs and details that you might only notice upon closer inspection. The design on this book represents what the text in the book represents, and its purpose is to draw the attention of potential readers. Despite the old saying, people do judge books by their covers, so they are designed to represent the book and attract the target audience. There are subtle hints and details that are reflected in the design that the reader would not understand unless they read the story. There are quotes from the reviews of the book on the back cover to also draw more interest to the reader. Each time the word house in written on the cover, is in a blue font, contrasting the rest of the white text on the cover.There is a compass like one featured on map centered on the front page, printed in a glossy black is a nautilus like shape in the center and other lines extending from that which resemble a blue print of a house, but with mazelike and random rooms, hallways, and doors. There are photographs printed on the side spine of the book in between black boxes of text that read the title, author and publisher information. There is a dim black and white photograph of man holding a light fading into the black background of the back cover. It is hard to tell who the target audience of this design is for, but I think it is for anyone who might be interested in the actual book, and maybe even for intellectual readers.
Thesis:
The purpose design featured on the cover of House of Leaves, by Mark Z. Danielewski is to attract readers and to represent the story inside.
2 comments:
Justin this is an interesting choice of item. Consider the following things as you develop and organize your argument. You mentioned a lot of elements of this book cover which are very general, yet not informative enough, I am afraid. Having read your description, I know that it is rather crowded, but I do not know what each element is supposed to mean: you never tell your audience how exactly those design elements are linked to the plot or imagery of the book. However, your purpose here is to disambiguate that seeming clutter for your audience, even if they have never read and will never read the book itself. So what is the target audience? Can you tell by the book cover or do you need to read the book to figure it out? Will the target audience fall for certain elements in the design and choose to buy this book? What will compel such naïve: the design, the title, or the author? Whatexactly makes the design “enigmatic”? :-)
I like your choice for the paper. I would have never been creative enough to think of a book cover, but that will be very interesting.
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