I had a few ideas for a book, mostly novels I have recently read, but in the end chose at random from what we call our book room at home.The novel Brazzaville Beach by William Boyd. I have read it but that was when it was published in 1990. I cannot remember the plot so found a synopsis of the book on the internet.
Briefly; it is a story set inThe Congo and seen through the eyes of a young woman who is working on a field study of chimpanzees.
Having originally been published some time ago there are now already several versions of cover design. At this time none of the designs I have found feature images indicative of the story line that I have in mind.
Incorporating a beach scene as backdrop seems popular and I had not really any intention of straying from this brief. But I knew I wanted to feature a chimp in a pose, hopefully, reminiscent of a human posture. I picture it as Quite strong in the foreground, perhaps looking out to sea. I knew immediately when I saw the one that I have used, that it had the most potential. The contemplative nature of the pose was made for my design.
Technically speaking, I had decided to use Photoshop to create the mock up, but I needed to find out how to cut out the chimp from its background whilst keeping the hairiness of the coat. I found that my, albeit old, version has a feature called 'extract'. Which very cleverly creates a cut-out mask and can retain feathered edges. I found out how here
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-change-the-background-of-a-photo-in-photoshop/
I selected a few a tropical beach scenes, courtesy of internet image search. I opted for a fairly tranquil scene with a palm tree to the right, (actually it was on the left so I flipped the image) I could equally have considered one where the sea had more waves for added drama. I was prepared to lose a proportion of the tree if limitations on dimensions dictated. Which happened to be the case, but there is a nice shadow of the palms on the sand which stayed in view and gives some extra content and depth.
Not having a novel to hand at this precise moment; I looked up the common hardback book sizes. Octavo 9" X 6" seemed a good size to opt for but my finished size will be slightly narrower than this.
Having cut my chimp image from its background, I superimposed it on the beach scene. The visual was near to my ideal design.
I then thought about font; thinking about authenticity I did some research into the kinds of type face that may be found or used in the Congo where the book is set. I had limited success, but it left me with at least an idea of a 'feel' for a type that might be used. I chose 'Undercurrent' (plenty of them in the book).
I was curious to find out if a chimp's sight was like ours, as filtering the beach scene to reflect this was an idea, apparently they see the world more or less as we do.
I had a bit of a problem with finding out who publishes it now and having opted on Vintage Publishers and acquired the Logo, I discovered a copy published by Penguin can also be bought.
Having positioned the elements I did a test print to PDF forgetting that the overall size had not been adjusted from the original beach image. The resulting clipped print made the chimps head more prominent which is something I had not considered, food for thought.
Having tweaked the positioning of my text and played with the colour, brightness and contrast levels of the background, the original, I found, was too vivid.
This is my final effort for the mock up.
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