M4 CP - Book Cover Design (Part 1)

For this assignment, I wanted to redesign the cover of the novel Star Wars: Shadow of the Sith. This is a book that I recently that covers events between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. It revolves around Luke Skywalker and Lando Calrissian going on a mission to find the new sith that has emerged along with rescuing Lando’s kidnapped daughter. The original cover for this book is one of my favorites. It has an excellent composition with great illustrations. 

For the first image (top left) I wanted to make it fairly simple. This cover uses the same characters that are on the original. This composition, however, puts more emphasis on them as opposed to the original. The back of the book features the planet of Exegol. This is one of the important locations in the novel, which helps resurrect the evil Empire known as the Final Order. 

The second image (top right) puts the two heroes, Luke and Lando as the main focus. The background has a planet with the two antagonists, Kiza and Ochi. Kiza is holding her lightsaber, and Ochi has his dagger, which is a major part of the story. The background is space, which fits in with Star Wars.

The third image (bottom left) has our main characters in a circle at the center of the image. This circle will represent the planet of Pasaana, which is one of the main locations in the story. I think this cover creates a clean and simplistic look for the novel. The back of the book includes the dagger that Ochi goes on the hunt to find.

The last image (bottom right) has Kiza’s head as the main focus of the cover. Next to her head are Luke and Lando, who appear to be ready for action. I think the head taking up a lot of space on the cover adds an intimidating aspect to her character. I think it makes for a really cool cover. The back of the novel has the Sith Eternal logo, which is the cult of the antagonist Kiza.

All of the backs of the covers will display a description of the novel. The designs on the back will either be blurred or have a light opacity in order to read the text. I think these covers will be more effective than the original as it will be more eye-catching. The original cover lacks a lot of colors, which I would like to change with my design. I can apply some of the Gestalt Principles such as figure/ground to help better catch the viewer's attention.

“What Are the Gestalt Principles?” The Interaction Design Foundation, https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/gestalt-principles.