The purpose of the diploma thesis was to design three different books with the aim of reaching their demographic group through their appearance.
In the theoretical part we discovered that the book's content is not only conveyed through the inside content, but also through the book's appearance and its colours, fonts, layout, graphic elements etc. We explored the associations evoked upon different colours and the importance of understanding the psychology behind colour perception. We examined the characteristics of fonts and identified their individual components. We discovered that the cover of the book has a significant impact on how the book is marketed. It represents the initial contact with the reader, where it can potentially entertain, enchant, offend, or completely repel them. The cover presents the book’s character and message, it can also reveal the book’s genre and demographic group. The cover can therefore attract the reader’s interest, while the book's interior must be designed to retain their interest. With the help of a well-organized layout and grid the interior of the book can be visually pleasing and logical. We explored the market and trends in designing books for young adults, where we discovered that the cover often portrays an illustration of a character or a scene from the story and the font used is eye-catching and genre-dependant. We have also examined the trends in designing books for adult women and concluded that they are sometimes perceived as lower-quality work due to their typical appearance.
In the experimental part, we adhered to the mentioned rules, trends and research when designing a contemporary and fantasy-adventure novel for young adults and a romance novel for adult women. We described the process of designing the cover to the final product and explained each novel's choice of colour palette and fonts. Inside the novels, we focused on their internal front matter pages, layout, and main text. Finally, we listed the mistakes that occurred during the design process.
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