SKETCHBOOK

PUFFIN BOOK COVER

BRIEF

Design a whole new cover look for The Outsiders, in order

to bring this classic to a new generation of readers, ensuring

that this timeless story remains an integral part of every

teenager’s bookshelf.

Nature’s first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf’s a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

so dawn goes down a day.

Nothing gold can stay.

-Robert Frost

BOOK SUMMARY

The Outsiders is about a two rival gangs, Greasers and

Socs’, which is actually two classes of society. The Greasers

are of the lower variety. One night when Ponyboy, the main

character, and his friend Johnny are out they get attacked

by a group of Socs’. This is nothing unusual, only this time

things get out of hand. The Socs’ almost drowns Ponyboy in

a fountain but Johnny stops them in a desperate act to save

his friend by stabbing one of the socs to death. They then

flee to an abandoned church and a lot of questions about

life and purpose arise. Ponyboy cites the Robert Frost poem

“Nothing gold can stay”, which has great significance for

the book’s meaning.

The Greasers are a very tight group that others are very

prejudiced against. The book is about friendship, solidarity,

youth and exclusion.

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RESEARCH

I started of by watching the 1983 film adaptation of the

book. Even though I thought the movie was pretty bad due

to poor acting and faltering dialogue, I tried to look past

that and see the story and it gave me a feel of which type of

story it was. I also read a lot of book summaries.

Then the next step was to just get inspired so I googled

a lot of book cover designs. Old books, teen books,

“50 best covers”, “50 worst covers”, old winners of the

Penguin and Puffin competitions and a lot more always

keeping in mind what The Outsiders was about to se if I

could find something interesting. But while researching book

covers I came to realise that the really good ones are very

context depen dent. There are no special tricks to make a

good cover design but you must find out the essence of the

book, a symbol or metaphor for that and then execute it

with a style that enhances the idea.

According to me, the greatness of the final idea for the cover

depends on how well it’s tied to the book.

INSPIRATION

The 60’s, in which the book takes place, are a very exiting

period for me in terms of design; the aesthetics, the colours,

the movie posters (especially those of Saul Bass), the furni­

ture (Verner Panton), the fashion (Mad Men) etc. Not to

mention the music! Short to say I really want my book cover

to reflect the 60’s somehow regardless of the idea I choose

to subconsciously capture the mood of the era in which the

book takes place.

Also, in the 60’s spirit, I’ve been really inspired by the mini­

malistic expressions and I really think that will make the

book stand out in the bookstores next to all those mystery

books with almost identical covers.

IDEAS

The comb is clearly a favorite symbol for the Greasers if you

look at different cover designs on the Internet and a symbol

I thought of before even finding examples of it. Not very

original in other words. But for me it’s just an accessory the

Greasers are wearing. If I where to use it I felt I needed to

do something more cleaver with the comb to make it work.

The theme exclusion is something I sort of can relate to in

the sense that I grew up in a suburb to Stockholm and were

therefore always a bit outside from the center where all the

fun happened. Not the same kind of exclusion the Greasers

in the book faces, but still, they do live in the outskirts of

a small city. This made me think of Bruce Springsteen who

often sings about seeing the city skyline and the light in the

horizon. One idea I have is to combine a city skyline with

the comb.

Another idea is to try and illustrate the rivalry between the

gangs using some contrast in some way. I don’t know how

clear that will be though.

SKETCHES

I came about my final pieces just by trying out a bunch of

thing in illustrator. Anything I could come up with really

to se if it sparked something I liked. I do prefer sketching

in the computer and not on paper simply because I’m more

comfortable that way. There aren’t much to say about them

really more than that they led me to the final idea. You could

say it was my way of brainstorming with myself.

To the left is a selection of some sketches.

FINAL PIECE

My final piece is the city skyline of Tulsa, Oklahoma, where

the book takes place and the “sky” is an abstract graphic

geo metric pattern that could be gold bullions or a very warm

sunset. The skyline represents exclusion and living in the

outskirts of both the city and the society itself. The gold or

the yellow sky is a reference to the poem “Nothing gold can

stay” which, as mentioned before, are cited and important

in the book. The contrast between the dark skyline and the

colourful upper part might symbolize the rivalry between

the gangs in the book.

The typography is carefully chosen to enhance the feeling of

the book and the 60’s era. American typewriter was chosen

given that the book begins and ends with the main character

typing the story on a typewriter. The other font is a very

Saul Bass inspired one. I thought it suited the purpose well

as it is a bit rough, as also the Greasers are, and it connotes

in my opinion very much from the 60’s.

This final idea was also very suitable for making the front

and back of the cover connected in an unforced manner.

ALTERNATIVE

The alternative is a little more different than just a red

version of the cover. The city skyline is still there and the

main idea is still the same (see “Final piece”), but instead of

a golden sky with abstract shapes there are quite apparent

running blood. This is clearly a darker more serious version

of my idea. A key scene in the book is when one of the Socs’

gets stabbed to death and blood is the perfect symbol for

death and bad things.

Needless to say I feel that this version connotes a to dark

story. It doesn’t feel like a youth book as much as the other

version and therefore chose that one as my first choice.

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CONCLUSIONS

This was a very fun and interesting project and the one that

has been the most alike the courses we have taken back in

Sweden. To communicate an idea.

I feel that my covers do pinpoint what I stated for myself in

the beginning regarding style and inspiration and the feel

I wanted for them. However I’m not 100percent satisfied

(are you ever?). I feel that my idea is not as “smart” as I’d

hoped for. I’m used to think around advertisement briefs and

having a huge creative angst that eventually transitions to a

redemptive big idea. That didn’t quite happen here but I’m

still very happy with how the covers turned out.

ANTON LARSSON

GRAPHIC DESIGN & ILLUSTRATION

UWS 2013