A Mock Up

This is the Mock Up that I'm going to share in my presentation.

The lines around the mock-up logo simulate where the newspaper article is going to be. I need to look further into and experiment more with how that is going to appear. I have a general gist of hows it's going to look, but am yet to try and design that aspect. I do not want it to look too overwhelming, especially with too much text - my idea is to feature words from the "surrounding" newspaper articles, that relate to the story - e.g. "fire", "gang", "church"  - so they appear as separate "articles" on the newspaper that the Greasers have tagged with their logo.

The font choice on this mock-up is quite good, and I like how it sides on the spine (in particular "The Outsiders" over the paper, in the middle). I'm a bit concerned at the clarity of the authors name at the tope, and whether it clashes too much with the fence pattern in the background. I think I'm going to experiment further with the background colour on the spine, or add some more shapes. The spine itself needs to be interesting enough to attract attention, as sometimes that's all that can be seen when the book is sat on the shelf, so I definitely need to think about this further.

A cloudy, moonlike background - I am not sure about this. I'm not sure if its relevant enough to the story, and I need to consider further what it connotes and if I can design something that has a strong message and relevance to the story. Perhaps a sunset? Sunsets are mentioned quite a lot in the book. To enhance the feel of the era the book is set in, as well as the location, I would like to experiment with the idea of silhouettes of buildings/road signs in the background and see how this looks. One idea of having a burning church in the background, behind the fence, would communicate an idea of violence and a relevance to churches in the book.

I need to consider where I am going to put the tagline (provided by Penguin Books) on the front cover. My initial thought is to incorporate it into the text that will surround the logo. Or, I could create another piece of ripped paper that's attached to the fence underneath, with it written on.