Final Critique

Criticism is important because it gives us a language (indeed a lens) by which to discuss and view design.

Steven Heller, 2007

Today, in groups, we critiqued our work and thought of improvements and slight alterations that could be made to the work. Here is the sheet I wrote the improvements on:

As you can see, there is a lot of feedback, especially towards the bottom where the titles are:

What don't you like about the design? and What could be improved on the design?

I could be put off by this, and the fact that no-one else seemed to have this much on their sheet. Or I could think this has given me a really good opportunity to improve my design and get a better mark at the end of it! I think i'm going to agree with the second option as it makes me feel better in myself.

In the session, I felt really embarrassed to show my work, I really was not confident with it but the group seemed to like the concept which was probably what I was looking to achieve before the session as I can change around the design for the last couple of days rather than changing round the whole concept.

So, the main improvements that could be made to my design are:

Front Cover

1. The title could be moved so instead of it being a right justified it would be left or more central, this is due to the potential customers hand blocking the title and the author.
2. Spacing problems in the title - Kerning needed.
3. Could change author's typeface as the author is already quite distinguished.
4. There seems to be an overbalance of white space.

Spine

1. The spine type is too thin and hard to read on black.
2. The colour of the bottom half of the spine could be changed to black on white.
3. Possibly change the font of the spine to match the blurb typeface.

Back Cover

1. The image could be changed to a different composition, perhaps to the bottom as it is distracting from the writing.
2. The image could be made smaller to match the size of the pepper shakers on the front cover.
3. The barcode needs to be bigger.
4. If the image is changed to the bottom the barcode could be placed over the pepper face.
5. All the shakers have a P on them, could be removed or had some hole taken out of them.
6. Blurb font is too blobby and hard to read.
7. More space could be made so that the reader has more room to read everything.

Even though I did receive a lot of criticism for this book cover, I got a lot of feedback from other eyes that is going to help me improve the book cover and make it visually appealing for everyone. With a few changes I think I will be confident enough to show this work if I had to on Friday - That is the most important thing I believe.