Photography book cover assignment

Illustrative Photography

I decided to research in to Autobiographies and Horror/Thriller books. They are both completely different, so this is why i chose these 2.

Autobiographies.



photographer unknown.



photographer unknown

When looking at autobiographies, the first thing i noticed was that all the books had images of whoever the book is about and the images were usually close up shots. They do this to make it 100% clear who the book is about and it also keeps it fairly simple, as unlike story books, they don't really need to catch a shoppers eye as much, as the shopper is more than likely going to know the celebrity already and have a view on whether they would enjoy reading about them.

When looking at a variety of front covers, i noticed that the celebrities who would target an older audience, usually use more simple colours and some times even in black or white, where as the autobiographies targeted at the younger market, such as justin biebers book, the colours were more front and in your eye.

When i looked at a variety of musicians autobiographies, i noticed that if the artist was well known for playing an instrument, then they would inclucde that instrument in the main image. I also noticed that, like i said, most shots are close ups, but when the book is for a band then they use a long shot showing all the body.



photographer unknown



photographer unknown



Horror/Thriller books.





photographer unknown



photographer unknown





When looking at horrow books, the first thing i noticed were the colours. Nearly every book used the colour red. Red is associated with death or danger, so this is the reason they use it. Also, all the other colours they use were dark colours to create a eary spooky image for the book, such as blacks or greys. The titles are also really big and stand out. The reason for this is because the covers never really have a huge main image, then just keep it plain to create suspence and make the viewer wonder what the book is about, so because the cover is plain, they need a big bold title to make the book stand out on the shelf. If they do use an image it usually covers the whole front cover of the book, it's still a simple image & still leaves something to the imagination, but it does give a rough image on what the book is about.