Penguin, Previous winners and Curent entries

This Blog thread Will be focusing on the Top 3 winners to last years (2012) Penguin design winners.

Last years winner was AJ. Haley from derby University. The winning design was haled by the Judges as "Beautifully executed, Cleverly conceived" and"compelling". The judges were particular pleased with the way the artist really grasped the notion of what an exiting book cover should be. The broken egg tells the viewer something about the text but doesn't give away to much. All aspect (image, typography and the concept were "beautifully handled".

 

Coming joint second was Christopher Worker from Nottingham Trent Uni, he went with a vey visual approach, Showing the viewer what a mundane and arduos environment the Institution can be. The judges were impressed by the strength of the Illustration as well as the narrative within.  The drawing is very clean very well thought out and technically sound.

 Also in joint second place was Allison King from Cambridge school of art. Her very individual was seen as "Fresh and intriguing", the tattooed figure is apparently a reference to 1960's subcultures.  I think this piece is very original and confidently composed. It doesn't have to be perfectly drawn and in fact that might possibly harm the overall design.




The next few images are designs I have found on students blogs for this years submissions, that I have chosen for different reasons.


 

This design caught my eye. The image belongs to Illustration Christopher Clancy. I think that It is a strong design but could still be improved upon. Firstly The gradient is nice and simple and clean. Chris obviously has a strong grasp on Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop. The design nice and simple and the hat works very well on the cover. He has all the well documented element to the nivel in some form or another, within the design. The 'Femme fetale' the fedora hat that I considered putting in my design at one stage and the gun. Finally there is the car engine on which the woman is sitting. Having read the book I realised that It is a car engine is sitting on, but not immediately, and Had I not already read the book and watched the move I'm not entirely convinced that I would realise what it is. Apart from that I think that the design is pretty strong. The only other thing that I would say is that i'm not so sure that the texts used on the back of the design work together.  




This next piece Is one of the best ones I have seen so far, really impressed. Shijie Hal is the name of the Illustration student. I had a look at the blog this design cam from and I can say that All the work is of the highest level. This Design is impressive on so many levels, It's technically very impressive, very well planned and the Text is expertly placed in the scheme of the overall design. Text buildings are certainly legible and very cleverly constructed to work as buildings as well as words.  The text is perhaps a tiny bit squished but i'm nit picking. I would imagine this will be one of the stronger entries this year.




This is another design that impressed me. Also this in the only other design that I have seen that focuses on the orchids. The artist has cleverly put some blood on the orchids, Also an Idea that I considered for my own design but left out. I like that the title is incorporated so neatly in the top right corner. I also noticed the clever use of red, only in the blood and the 'intro by Ian Rankin' text. Overall a strong realistic Illustration that works well.

This guy has gone for the more cartoon-like or 'graphic approach'  It's simple but works well and could appeal to a younger audience. The color palet is appropriate for the text the gradients used help give it the dark tones it needs to work.