Asian Brand Strategy Book

 Asian Brand Strategy is a book by Martin Roll.
Asian Brand Strategy offers insights, knowledge and perspectives on Asian brands and branding as a strategic tool and provides a comprehensive framework for understanding Asian branding strategies and Asian brands, including success stories and challenges for future growth and strengths. The book includes theoretical frameworks and models and up-to-date case studies on Asian brands, and it a must-read for Asian and Western business leaders as well as anyone interested in the most exciting region of the world.
http://www.martinroll.com/books/
This book cover is made out of all text. It's an interesting book cover. The three colors (yellow, redish, and blue-green) remind me of the primary colors. I really like the repeated words behind the title. It looks like the words are names of people possible the ones who helped create the book or the characters and it also looks like names of companies. It gives readers a little more information on the book than just the title itself. I also really like how the 3 bar colors fades out. It is solid on the right side and then fades, so the words can show. I think it gives it a nice touch rather than having the bar colors just one solid color. This book cover creates movement. I like how the title is right aligned and is off centered. The title is more important than the rest of the information when you first look at it. I think this is a well-designed book and it's different.  

Baltimore Graffiti

This is a alley that I went down (don't worry I was with other people) in Baltimore right after Artscape. Most people think graffiti is trashy and destruction of public property, but people don't realize that it's a creative art form. Graffiti is usually used inappropriately especially in cities, but I have seen some amazing graffiti. These 2 pictures aren't the best graffiti work I've seen as far as typography goes, but I wanted to use my own picture. I love the painting of the guy angel. Focusing more on typography though... the text in the top picture is mostly in bubble form. The white and red text above the angle seems messy. I do like the black text outlined with yellow. The person probably made up there own font, which is a form of typography. The one thing that is good about graffiti is that people are creative and usually freehand this stuff. People create their own fonts, color, shading, and size. So many people today use a computer for everything and I feel like some people forget how to be creative. The bottom picture shows another part of the alley (this alley was huge and had a lot more graffiti on the other side). It is very colorful and there are many different styles of text. Most of them do have a bubble feel, but not all of them do. I like the pink, purple, yellow type next to the car. I like the colors because they are bright and I think they flow well. I actually didn't think of graffiti as typography until my teacher said something. There are some creative people out there, they just have to be discovered.   

Goodbye Sister Disco

 I have to design a book made out of all text, so I am researching book covers that are mainly made out of text. Goodbye Sister Disco is a novel by James Patrick Hunt. The title is big and bold on this cover. Even without the picture of the car the title says a lot. It seems like this is a scary and/or crime scene action book. I like how the word "Goodbye" is sideways next to the other words in the title. I also like how everything is lined up. They adjusted the tracking in "Sister Disco," so the words would line up. They also adjusted the tracking and leading on "Goodbye." I like how the words have black smears on it. It gives it a rough, dirty, and old feeling. It makes me think of a crime scene. I also think it's a good idea that the title is in white and the author is in blue. Even though the designer used the same font they made in varied by using different colors.

American Girl's Home Book of Work and Play

 This is an interesting book cover. It is a very dark cover. It's by Helen Campbell and it was copyrighted in 1883. I like that they have the word "charades, "wax flowers," "woodcutting" and other words in the ribbon coming out of the pocket watch/circle. It tells you a little about the book. I also like the decorative "A" in American. It doesn't look like a girly book at all, but I think because it was made in the 1880's they didn't have much color or printers that we do today, so black was probably one of their few choices. It looks like a lithograph print. There is some typography in the actually title. Even though they used the same font the words are varied. I like how "Home" is curved and how the "y" in play is holding a bag. The only thing I don't like how the title is positioned/angled is that it doesn't read right to me. When I first read it I thought it said "Home of Book Work and Play" or "Home of Work and Play Book." The title is supposed to be read like this "American Girls' Home Book of Work and Play." One solution to fix this problem is to move "of" to the other side of "Book."  It looks like they used 3 fonts, which is usually the maximum for a book cover or poster design. I am currently designing a book cover and I have to design it all out of type. I am playing with angles right now.

The Brand Gap

 (I first saw this book in class)The Brand Gap is a book by Marty Neumeier. This book is about brand-building. This book cover is made out of all text. There are some problems with this design though. When I read it I read it as "The" "Bra" "ND" "Gap." The designer should not have separated the word brand between the a and the n because it reads as bra. The thing that really bugs me is that the n is flush with the p, but the a is not flush with the other a. That cliffs throws the design off. It would look much better if they made the a flush with the other a. The "How to Bridge..." section is supposed to be falling in the gap, which is a cool idea, but it doesn't work. If I was to drag those words through the gap it would not fit. I think they should adjust the words to make it fit in the negative space (gap) and move them down a little, so it looks like they are falling down the gap. I do like how Marty Neumeier in "A White Board Overview By Marty Neumeier" is black and the rest is white. This is a decent example of a book cover made out of type, but it needs some adjustments. I am currently designing a book cover and it has to be made out of all type.  

English Book

  This is an English book cover. This cover is made out of all text. The tracking and leading are very tight. They are so close together that all of the letters are overlapping except the "r." I like the dark blue that the letters make when they overlap. Even though the letters are the same color when they overlap they make a different shade of blue. I know words/letters aren't supposed to be tight to the edge, but I think it works in this cover because the words are actually going off the page. The cover is a interesting concept, but I don't think I would use this for an educational English book. I have to think about tracking and leading when I'm designing my book cover.

IMperfect Enjoyment

 The Imperfect Enjoyment is a book by Dewan W. Gibson. The front book cover is mostly made out of type. When I first looked at it I thought it said, "I'm perfect...enjoy...ment. Then I looked at it and realized it said The Imperfect Enjoyment. This is a good use of weight, scale and color variations in text. I like that the put "the" in the "I"in IM. It makes the word the word "the" not as important. It's a little top heavy, but I think that the size and the placement of the text below it balances it out. I like how each line is different. I also like the picture inside the text "Perfect Enjoyment." I didn't noticed it at first, but when I looked at it closer I saw that there is an image of a woman. This is a good example of visual hierarchy. This is something I need to keep in mind when I am designing my book cover for my typography class. I also like how the designer used the space in the spine to put the title and author in it. I also like how the back is designed. I like that they brought in the bathing suit bottom from the front. I also like the quotes on the back cover. I think using 2 different colors on the back cover helps separate the information and it makes it more interesting. I think this is an interesting book cover design. I have to design a book cover made out of only text.