Category: Development Research Blog

The use of colour is important within design, it both draws the eye of the target audience and assists the audience in processing information. This blog post will be exploring the use of colour by discussing why a good example of colour used on a crochet book cover works and what makes a poor example bad, it will then adapt the poor example to be improved. Good example Wool and the gang’s book raffia crochet is a great example of minimalistic colour use. The tones of the colours used on the book cover would stand out to a young target audience and offer thoughts of a summery, warm climate. There is a neutral background with only white and beige being used, giving a very natural, environmental vibe to the design. The contrasting colour is orange to match the physical orange that has fallen out of the crocheted bag, even though this is a bright colour, orange still compliments the neutral tones. Whilst there are only two main colours on the book cover, it pops and would stand out on the shelf. Colour can convey meanings, affect emotions, and impact purchases of products. When first looking at an item or individual people make opinions and decisions quickly. ChangDa and Bhaumik (2023:1) state that “A product’s or person’s evaluation is based only on colours between 62 and 90% of the time. Thus, a colour is used to distinguish your goods from those of competitors as well as to alter the emotions and moods of specific customers”. The orange title of the book is placed on the white wall meaning that the title is easily readable, due to it being positive text. In a study by Hall and Hanna (2007:1), they found that “colours with greater contrast ratio generally lead to greater readability” and that “ratings of aesthetic quality were significantly related to intention to purchase.” This confirms that the colours chosen for a book cover directly affects a person’s intention of purchasing a book. This must be considered when starting the design process. Poor example The crochet book is a bad example of the use of colour because it is lifeless. The shades of the colours used on the original version of the crochet book are not complimentary of each other. The salmon pink that is used down the left side and for some of the text is picked from the imagery of the yarn, however, there is the potential to use any colour due to the vast amount of yarn colours available, a different colour would be a better choice. All text on the original is light colour on a dark background, which is harder to read but the subheading has worse readability due to there not being a great contrast in colours and as discussed earlier this does have an impact on readability. On the revised version the colours are still toned down but have a greater contrast which is more aesthetically pleasing. The chosen colours are opposite each other on the colour wheel, meaning that they are complementary colours. When redesigning the decision was made to have the rusty orange as the text colour on top of the light blue, to ensure the text is easily readable. Overall, the redesign is more striking, and this would hopefully lead to greater sales. References ChangDa, H. & Bhaumik, A. (2023) Colour psychology’s impact on marketing, advertising, and promotion. International Journal of Management and Human Science, 7(1), 12-18. DK (2020) The crochet book. London: DK. Hall, R. H. & Hanna, P. (2007) The impact of web page text-background colour combinations on readability, retention, aesthetics and behavioural intention. Behaviour and Information Technology, 23(3), 183-195. Wool and the Gang (2019) Raffia crochet. Exeter: David & Charles.

Composition refers to the layout of a design, it is an important element in creating an interesting and dynamic piece of work. Composition is a vital aspect of design when ensuring the audience’s eye is drawn to the message of the work. According to Kadry (2017:1) composition “should establish a visual hierarchy that directs the viewer’s eyes through a deliberate visual sequence”. This blog post will look at a good and poor example of how composition is used in the design of crochet book covers and analyse an improved redesign of the poor example. Good example The composition of the Modern Crochet Style book cover tells a story. The title of the book stands out immediately due to it being bold, black font on top of a light-coloured background, in addition to this the fact that the title is central is another reason that the reader’s eyes are drawn to it. The crochet items are displayed in a way that shows the movement of the crochet process, the scarf on the right side leads the reader from the main heading up the page to the sub-heading. The author’s name is placed directly on top of the body of the person crocheting which possibly is ‘Lindsey Newns’ herself. Through the composition guideline created from the modern crochet style book cover (please see left) you can see the crocheted items in colours and the negative space of the book cover in white. There is white space around both headings, shown in black and the scarf, shown in grey, looks like a pathway for your eyes to follow. Landa (2021) makes the point that composition affects the amount of time a person will spend looking at a design, and through the regularity or irregularity of negative space in a design, a rhythm is established when the eyes are looking over a design. Poor example When looking at the book Christmas Crochet the design looks overcrowded and overworked. There is no reason for the crocheted items to be where they are on the page. Whilst Lindsay Newns’ book cover (good example) contains multiple crocheted products, they were composed cleanly and coherently, on the poor example, the crocheted items appear to have been cut and pasted into random spaces with no thought as to why. The designer has included an image of crochet as part of the background, plus some block colours, plus a white background with grey dots, demonstrating that too many ideas have been combined into one. On the revised version of the Christmas Crochet book cover, the heading is central to ensure that the reader’s eyes are drawn to this first. The viewer’s eyes should then look at the Christmas trees which are on a contrasting background colour of pink. The majority of the crocheted items were removed on the revised design, this was due to a lot of them being included in the main image of the Christmas tree and to simplify the composition. The three Christmas trees are placed in a ‘V’ shape, often in crochet patterns the instructions are to work into the ‘V’, meaning the decision was made to replicate a crochet stitch. This redesign was difficult due to the poor example being very clustered and the images used were of poor quality, however, the composition of the redesign does stand out in comparison to the original. References Kadry, A. (2017) The role of composition in advertising design. Journal of Applied Arts & Science, 1-20. Landa, R. (2021) Advertising by design: generating and designing creative ideas across media. New Jersey: Wiley. Newns, L. (2021) Modern crochet style. Barnsley: White Owl. Toonen, A. (2016) Christmas crochet. City published N/A: Publisher N/A.

Conceptual design describes the concept that one design can have multiple meanings. When used in the design of book covers conceptual designs can offer the audience an understanding of various topics that can be expected within its pages. This blog post will analyse conceptual design within the category of crochet/knitting books by finding a good example of conceptual design and an example containing no conceptual design, then providing an updated version that includes conceptual design. Good example The Power of Knitting written by economist Loretta Napoleoni is a book about the powerful effect knitting can have on empowering people, healing people, and bringing people together in our disjointed world. At first glance, the book cover shows a blue ball of yarn with a hand holding knitting needles in front, however upon closer inspection the illustration is a map of the world with yarn wrapped around it, meaning the reader must infer that metaphorically the world and yarn are both represented in this image. The subtitle of the book is ‘stitching together our lives in a fractured world’, having the yarn wrapping around the world gives a visual representation of yarn physically holding the ‘fractured world’ together. This is an excellent example of conceptual design; the image of the yarn/world has a dual purpose which connects to the meaning of the book title and ultimately the contents of the book. In addition to the conceptual meaning of the illustration of the world, the hand in front of the world is in a fist, which has throughout history been a symbol of power and protest (The Economist, 2020). This book is trying to convey a message about how powerful knitting has been throughout history and is backing this point up by incorporating one of the most recognisable symbols of power. In the illustration the powerful fist is being formed to hold knitting needles like a weapon, this could have an additional meaning of people using knitting as a weapon of peace.    Above all, this book cover will give the audience an appreciation of the metaphors created through the multiple meanings of the illustration because they are understandable. Mulken et al. (2014) state that “comprehension is a necessary prerequisite because otherwise the strategy may backfire”. Conceptual designs must be clear to understand because if not they will have less of an impact. Poor example There are no examples of conceptual design on the original book cover for ‘a little course in crochet’. The cover has images of scissors, crochet hooks, yarn and more, meaning the reader can understand what will be included in the book. However, the overall design is quite lifeless and does not pop. Introducing a conceptual design into this book cover would introduce a new layer of appreciation to the audience and hopefully make them spend more time looking at the cover, leading to a purchase of the book. However, introducing a conceptual design that is not too simple is also important as this can also affect the impact of the design, much like an overly ambitious conceptual design can do. For the revised version the text has included two conceptual design ideas. The first example shows the letter ‘o’ in the word ‘course’ has been replaced by the crocheted flower from the original book cover. The second example is that the stem of the letter ‘t’ in the word ‘crochet’ is a crochet hook with a sewing needle as the cross stroke on the ‘t’. It is important when replacing letters for conceptual design that you ensure the word is still readable, which in this design they are. These introductions of conceptual design in the revised version possibly are too simple; however, they do show an understanding of the idea behind conceptual design. References DK (2014) A little course in crochet. London: DK. Mulken, M. V., Hooft, A. V. & Nederstigt, U. (2014) Finding the tipping point: visual metaphor and conceptual complexity in advertising. Journal of Advertising, 43(4), 318-332. Napoleoni, L. (2020) The power of knitting. New York: Penguin Random House USA. The Economist (2020) A brief history of protest symbols, from cockades to raised fists. The Economist, Internet edition. 17 June. Available online: https://www.proquest.com/docview/2414023991?accountid=11528&parentSessionId=6LoPGjz0h5YW%2FeFvogTkUSi94MYIfk%2FqccEujC44Woo%3D&pq-origsite=summon [Accessed 26/10/2023].

Typography contributes to setting the tone of a design. It can assist the viewer’s understanding of whether a design is corporate, informal, classical, or modern. McCarthy and Mothersbaugh (2002) suggest that typography can affect how consumers process information, they also propose that typography can be an influencing factor as to whether the target audience of a design interacts with it. This blog post will be exploring how typography can improve or worsen crochet book covers by examining a good example of typography, then improving a poor example of typography and analysing the changes. Good example Mix and Match – Modern Crochet Blankets is a book filled with crochet patterns that allow the reader to create unique, modern blankets. Even though the title of the book uses a unique font, it is still clear and easily readable. The typography of the book title is a sans-serif font, much like crochet, sans-serif fonts have existed for a long time; according to Garfield (2010:42) “sans-serif lettering existed in the Ancient World” however they are viewed as more modern, contemporary font type, which is in keeping with the name of the book and therefore confirms that the reader can expect a modern take on crochet. The overall aesthetic of the typography is fun and creative. The typography used for the book’s heading makes use of conceptual design. The font used for the words ‘Mix + Match’ has additional linework that could be interpreted as crochet stitches, particularly within the word mix. Similarly, the usage of a ‘+’ symbol instead of the word ‘and’ could also be a symbol of a crochet stitch. In addition, the zig-zags, stripes, and strips made by the linework on the text act as an example of the patterns on the blankets that the readers will be making. The designer of the book cover has adapted the tracking in the heading, this ensures the space at the top of the book is filled whilst also assisting in the heading being clean looking and legible. The author’s name is at the bottom in a smaller cursive font, this almost appears as a signature which gives a personal touch to the book cover. The typography is colourful, each colour used in the heading and subheading has been picked from the colours of the yarn that is included in the book’s imagery. This gives a cohesive feel to the front cover. Poor example The cover of the book ‘Crochet Unravelled’ is not aesthetically pleasing, the colours are dull, the composition is not exciting, and the book would not stand out on a shop shelf or online to anyone. The books aim is to teach crochet basics to beginners, meaning that the target audience is probably a younger one. The typography used for the book title Crochet Unravelled is a bold serif font, which is a more traditional font. On the revised version the chosen font is sans-serif, the reason behind choosing this font is to appeal to a younger audience and give a more modern finish to the book cover. In addition, the corners on each letter have been rounded using Adobe Illustrator to match the texture of the crocheted pineapple on the cover. The font used for the revised version is called ‘Gambado’, this is a bounced font rather than letter-by-letter, which is a visualisation of how yarn would look when unravelled. On the original cover, the kerning of the heading is close and uneven, with some letters being closer to the next than others, for example, the letters ‘oc’ in crochet. Whereas, on the amended version the heading is more evenly kerned. The orange colour chosen for the text on the amended version of the book cover is to embrace the tropical feel of pineapples. References Bojczuk, C. (2013) Crochet unravelled. Essex: Pottage Publishing. Crick, E. (2023) Mix and match: modern crochet blankets. Exeter: David & Charles. Garfield, S. (2010) Just my type: a book about fonts. London: Profile Books. McCarthy, M. S. & Mothersbaugh, D. L. (2002) Effects of typographic factors in advertising-based persuasion: A general model and initial empirical tests. Psychology & Marketing, 19(7-8), 663-691.