Book cover designs I like

Here's a sample of some book covers that I liked or found interesting -

Typography as a graphic element

Here's some research on typography as a graphic element that I found on the Smashing magazine website.

Brain art

Looking up brain art I found some interesting work by Dr. Don Stewart. He had finished his medical training when he realised that his real passion was for art. His drawings are of objects made of composites of smaller objects, chimeras you could call them.

 

Left brain - logic, maths, etc.

 

Right brain - creativity, art, etc.

Another doctor exploring anatomy and art is Psychiatrist Dr Karen Norberg. She knits anatomically correct replicas of the human brain.

Mind maps and research

I found this mind map by Austin Kleon on the site http://pkab.wordpress.com/page/52/

Images of music and the brain -

 

Areas of the brain that may be involved in different aspects of music perception and performance

 

Music on the mind

 

 Auditory stimulation

 

A brain training product that uses music

Chimera 2 - chimera on a book

For the second part of this project we have to design a book jacket cover for Oliver Sacks' Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain.

The design must contain -
- One digital illustration
- One physical object
- Type as a graphic element
- Editorial information
- Publishers' logo

 In Musicophilia, Sacks explores the relationship between music and the brain. He uses to medical case studies to show us the mundane and complex relationships we have with music, and how it effects our lives. It blends music, science and psychology.

Examples of Musicophilia book covers -

My Chimera

This is my finished chimera

New from Japan - Super Fun Gadget Cat! Gat!

We bioengineered a cat with a mobile phone, mp3 player and fabric pencil case, to make a versatile accessorie pet.
Gat is made of 80% bio-polycotton body with plastic zipper pouch for storage, to store your pencils and pens.
The face is of bio-polythene and bio-alluminium compound.

Use Gat's eyebrows to dial numbers and call your friends!
Speak into the mic in Gat's mouth!
Use the controls on Gat's eyes to work the mp3 player!
Listen to the radio...Gat's whiskers act as antenna!
Gat has speakers in it's ears!
Or plug your earphones into the earphone and usb jack on Gat's forehead!

Gat is a quiet timid gadget pet, fun for all ages!
Order yours now!

My Chimera in progress

I decided to use my pencil case, phone and mp3 player and form a fabric gadget cat. Firstly I tried to distort the objects in photoshop into a cat but it didn't really work. So I drew a cat outline in Illustrator to work around.

Then I brought the image into photoshop and used layer mask to form the cat from my objects.