COURSE DOCUMENTS | MIDTERM PROJECT

** Your project must be burned to CD and placed in the AD360 Dropbox BEFORE CLASS STARTS **

Midterm Project BANNED BOOK COVER - Due Week08 (March 22, 2006)

Your Midterm Project assignment is to re-create a published book cover design. The book you choose must have been banned or censored in some way, at some point in time.

You should use an existing book cover, but you may modify it to reflect your personal style and/or interpretation of the book.

STEP ONE: Research

• Book Cover Design:
  • http://covers.fwis.com/
• Book cover sizes:
  • http://www.cafepress.com/cp/info/help/learn_book_covers.aspx
• Banned book lists:
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banned_books
  • http://www.alibris.com/articles_features/features/banned/banned.cfm
  • http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/banned-books.html
  • http://title.forbiddenlibrary.com/
  • http://www.adlerbooks.com/banned.html
• Online Reading: public-domain literature
  • http://www.literaturepage.com/category/banned.html
• American Library Association:
  • http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/bannedbooksweek.htm
• Book Censorship
  • http://www.georgesuttle.com/censorship/bookbanning.shtml
  • http://www.albany.edu/~mr3240/isp605/
  • http://www.ncac.org/
  • http://www.indexonline.org/

STEP TWO: Template Setup

• Choose a book you have read or would like to read from one of the banned book lists above, you will be writing a summary of the book, so pick something you like.
• Find the book cover of your choice by going to the library, bookstore or your book shelf. Scan the book cover at 150dpi-- high enough that you can use the scan as a base for your illustration.
• In Photoshop, if necessary, increase the contrast, Posterize, add poster edges filter or cut-out filter to create a graphic tracing image with strong outlines.
• Resize the scan so it is approximately 1650 x 2550px. NOTE: make sure constrain proportions is checked.

STEP THREE: Specifications and Execution

• Create a folder on the desktop called midterm project and place your scanned, resized and modified bookcover image in the folder.
• Setting up your Illustrator file.
  • Size: 5.5 x 8.5 (1650 x 2550px)
  • CMYK
• Next "place" (File > Place) the modified bookcover image as a template layer in Illustrator. Choose the template and link check boxes and click ok.
• Use named layers to organize different elements in your illustration.
• You can use the Eyedropper + Shift to select colors from your bitmap image or create your own colors in the color palette. Remember to save and label your color swatches.
• Use the Bezier Pen Tool to outline the outer edges of each part of your illustration. You will toggle between OUTLINE and PREVIEW mode in order to achieve accurate curves.
• You may use the Type tool to recreate the book title and author text, but you must choose an appropriate font. Set up tracking and leading before turning fonts into outlines. Once in outlines, you may adjust the look and feel of the font, but not to the point that the type become illegible.
• In Outline mode begin tracing the mid-tones, shadows and highlights that define the structure of the illustration. Create broad closed paths to start, then add detail when the main areas have been defined. Use named layers to organize different elements in your illustration.
• Apply your saved color swatches to the different parts of your illustration. Toggle between Outline and Preview to see your progress.
• When you are finished, zoom into your illustration and clean up any stray paths, unnecessary or redundant anchor points.

STEP FOUR: Submission

Prepare your summary:

Write a one page, double spaced summary of your banned book. Note in the summary why the book was subject to censorship or challenged in some way. Please review why our basic right to read is guaranteed in the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Make sure you can answer these questions.

• What is Intellectual Freedom and Censorship?
• What does the First Amendment say and how is my basic right to read protected?
• Are organizations or government institutions breaking the law when they ban or censor books?

Prepare your finished files as follows:

• Name your files with your name and the project title.
  • jsmith_midterm.ai
  • jsmith_booksummary.rtf
• Put all files (illustrator, scanned template, fonts and summary) in a folder with your first initial, last name.
• Drop the folder in the ad360_DropBox on the ADGA server (10.10.110.16)
• Create a backup on CD to turn in.

The Rubric that will be used to grade your project has been defined. Please read it before turning in your project.