Penguin random house student award brief - initial research on the books

What is the brief?

The Penguin Random House Student Award is a competition for students to design book covers for existing books; consisting of three categories/books:

‘The Night Manager’ by John Le Carre ; adult fiction 

‘A Short Story of Nearly Everything’ by Bill Bryson 

‘Goodnight Mister Tom’ by Michelle Magorian 

Initially, I think the adult fiction and non fiction books are probably most suitable for my book cover design, as they have stronger focal points to develop. However, I need to carry out thorough research to finalise my decision on what book I want to focus my designs on. According to Penguin, the design needs to be original and must consider elements of the book in order to represents its subjects and themes; due to this, I need to look into the books and consider their tones and how I could communicate these in a visually interesting way; the judges are looking for a simplistic design that also works in the context of audience considerations and even thumbnail sizes for online readers. 

'The Night Manager' - John Le Carre

Overview

"In the shadowy recesses of Whitehall and Washington an unholy alliance operates between the intelligence community and the secret arms trade. Jonathan Pine is ready to stand up and be counted in the fight against this ultimate heart of darkness. His mission takes him from the cliffs of west Cornwall, via northern Quebec and the Caribbean, to the jungles of post-Noriega Panama. His quarry is the worst man in the world."

The Night Manager is a spy novel thriller following a former British Soldier, Jonathan Pine, as he deals with the trafficking of illegal arms and drugs. The novel focuses on the theme of 'the worst man in the world'; Richard Onslow Roper, a billionaire criminal who Pine meets in Zurich. The book also follows the themes of a corrupt government, arms deals, drug cartels and suicides.

Due to this, the novel seems to explore very dark themes, which could be interpreted in the cover design through linking to its tones; there seems to be a gritty atmosphere to the undertones in the novel; the narrative touches upon very serious situations, following The Cold War. The novel is analysed to play with a sense of two parallel stories; Jonathan Pine and his self destructive nature, juxtaposed with the complexity of the George Smiley novels - especially Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1974). Consequently, the novel examines the political infighting inside American and British intelligence; The Night Manager deals with strong themes of betrayal and a series of betrayals throughout the novel. This could be an interesting theme to elaborate on in the book cover design? 

Interesting quotes 

“Every man has his personal devil waiting for him somewhere.”

“The snow is still falling and the worst man in the world is drawn towards it like a man who is contemplating his childhood in the dancing flakes.”

“Guns have their own silence. It is the silence of the dead to come.”

“A fool is someone who does not learn by experience.”

Key themes

• Corruption 
• Death 
• Cartels 
• Crime 
• Mystery 
• Suspense 

From initially looking at The Night Manager, I don't think I am heavily interested in conveying it into a book design, as I feel like the themes are too serious; I want to create a witty design for the book cover concept, as I think it would be more interesting to look into a more playful book that is more full of facts that could be visually translated. I feel like if I chose this novel I would have to read the full book to get a full sense of the characters. Due to this, I think I will look into the non fiction book, as it will be full of more interesting ideas to communicate. 

A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson 

"In Bryson's biggest book, he confronts his greatest challenge: to understand—and, if possible, answer—the oldest, biggest questions we have posed about the universe and ourselves. Taking as territory everything from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization, Bryson seeks to understand how we got from there being nothing at all to there being us. To that end, he has attached himself to a host of the world’s most advanced (and often obsessed) archaeologists, anthropologists, and mathematicians, travelling to their offices, laboratories, and field camps. He has read (or tried to read) their books, pestered them with questions, apprenticed himself to their powerful minds. A Short History of Nearly Everything is the record of this quest, and it is a sometimes profound, sometimes funny, and always supremely clear and entertaining adventure in the realms of human knowledge, as only Bill Bryson can render it. Science has never been more involving or entertaining."

A Short History of Nearly Everything is a non fiction book that is essentially a guide to 'everything', from black holes, evolution and the industrial revolution; I feel like it is a lot more interesting to translate into a book cover, as it is full of information and witty quotes that I could focus on. The aim of the book is to make science know how accessible to everyone, which allows the book to have quite entertaining themes and playful elements. 

Review comments 

"In fact, what I loved most is the acute, childlike sense of wonder seeping through the pages. How fantastic little we know about the world in which we live. All the great scientific leaps fallen through the cracks, all the billions of leaps that will never be made, every scientist who with an amiable grin shrugs to say, "I don't know. We don't know. Who has any idea?" The world is a magically baffling, enchanting place, and after nearly everything there is infinitesimally more."

"Having graduated from genial travel writing to popular science, Bill Bryson wields a childlike determination to keep asking questions until he understands something well enough to explain it. How do you weigh the Earth? How does a human blood cell work? Why can’t we live forever? 

Curiosity is the driving force of science – and in Bryson’s case that also rings true of science writing. At a time when you can’t throw a crystal without it hitting an anti-vaxxer, an antioxidant moisturiser or a marginally qualified wellness guru, his latest book is particularly welcome. In The Body: A Guide for Occupants​, Bryson brings all his usual powers of poetry and precision to “the warm wobble of flesh” that is our enigmatic home."

What I really like about this review comment is that it touches upon this childish nature of Brysons writing; the book itself is almost like a child explaining the universe, which conveys a sense of enthusiasm and wonder. I think it could be interesting to communicate this playfulness within my cover design, and turn science into something witty and exciting. It could be interesting to communicate a really niche fact for the front cover, as it could make the audience question the relevance of it to the book itself. 

Quotes 

“It is a slightly arresting notion that if you were to pick yourself apart with tweezers, one atom at a time, you would produce a mound of fine atomic dust, none of which had ever been alive but all of which had once been you.”

“It is easy to overlook this thought that life just is. As humans we are inclined to feel that life must have a point. We have plans and aspirations and desires. We want to take constant advantage of the intoxicating existence we've been endowed with. But what's life to a lichen? Yet its impulse to exist, to be , is every bit as strong as ours-arguably even stronger. If I were told that I had to spend decades being a furry growth on a rock in the woods, I believe I would lose the will to go on. Lichens don't. Like virtually all living things, they will suffer any hardship, endure any insult, for a moment's additions existence. Life, in short just wants to be.”

“In France, a chemist named Pilatre de Rozier tested the flammability of hydrogen by gulping a mouthful and blowing across an open flame, proving at a stroke that hydrogen is indeed explosively combustible and that eyebrows are not necessarily a permanent feature of one's face.”

“When you sit in a chair, you are not actually sitting there, but levitating above it at a height of one angstrom (a hundred millionth of a centimetre), your electrons and its electrons implacably opposed to any closer intimacy.”

Fun facts inside the book

I thought it would be interesting to look into some of the fun facts in the book, as it could help me discover niche elements of the book to potentially communicate visually. 

1) The geologist and paleontologist William Buckland was determined to taste every animal on the planet.

2) Best remembered for coining the word Dinosaur, Richard Owen also gave us the modern concept of museums as places the common folk can visit and not just scientists. He was also one of the meanest persons in science history and the only person Darwin ever hated. And he looked like Ebeneezer Scrooge.

3) Carl Wilhelm Scheele one of the founders of modern chemistry, had a habit of sniffing and tasting any new element or chemical he discovered including poisonous ones.
He was found dead at the age of 43, killed by his last discovery.

4) In the early days of pump and hose assisted diving, there was a dreaded phenomena called “the squeeze” where the diver’s entire body would be sucked into the hose and diving helmet, leaving just some bones and flesh in the diving suit. Ouch.

5) For dozens of years, nuclear waste was dumped in the oceans using hundreds of thousands of plastic drums that would sometimes be perforated with machine guns to help them sink. And I thought Monty Burns was bad.

6) You just aren’t built to walk on two legs. When our ape-like ancestors came down from the trees, there was an evolutionary advantage to walking upright: we could cover more ground and see further. But our skeleton is still largely engineered to cope with life on four feet, not two. As Bryson writes: “Becoming upright put extra pressure on the cartilage discs that support and cushion the spine, in consequence of which they sometimes become displaced or herniated in what is popularly known as a slipped disc.” General back pain is ridiculously common: some 60 per cent of adults suffer from it. Our knee and hip joints are nothing to brag about, either, giving out with dispiriting frequency.

Other facts to explore

According to The New York Times, Bill Bryson stumbled upon the existential realisation that he didn't know anything about the planet he lived on, whilst looking out of a plane window; prior to writing the book, Bryson was a travel writer.

After this, he decided to do research into science, books and articles, whilst questioning the worlds experts to find out about the earth. This curiosity is explored within the book itself, as it discusses little tidbits of information such as Isaac Newton sticking a sewing needle into his eye just to find out what it would do. 

Themes

• Curiosity 
• Childlike determination 
• Witty 
• Playful 
• Existential 

I think after doing some initial in depth research into A Short History of Nearly Everything, I think I am going to choose this book for my penguin book cover design entry; this is due to the vast amount of avenues I could go down regarding themes/ facts I could explore for my visuals. I definitely want to choose a witty fact to play with, and I could possibly create my cover in a childish way in order to relate to Brysons sense of voice. 

After carrying out this initial research, and having decided on the book I am going to do, I need to carry out some in depth research to further inform my initial ideas. Consequently, I need to research the following: 

• Look into previous book covers of A short History of Nearly Everything 
• Look at science non fiction book covers; how can I design something set apart from them?
• Research the demographics/ audience considerations for science non fiction books; could go into an actual book shop 
• Look into design principles for book design - Marber grid 
• Research past penguin book cover winners/ covers in general 
• Look into a smile in the mind and what good research is 
• Look into contemporary book design