Research Commence!

To get a more complete understanding of the world of branding a huge franchise I wanted to look into the world dominating force that is Harry Potter. J. K. Rowling's fantasy novel series has grown into a massive franchise with a cult following of dedicated fans (Potter Heads) that each up anything related to the wizarding world. What I want to know is the path that the visuals of the brand followed. I looked into who designed/illustrated the book covers and found that the book covers themselves show a great deal of progress and evolution.

The original cover for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was illustrated by Thomas Taylor. The following 3 were done in the same style, but by Cliff Wright, and the final 3 covers were done by Jason Cockcroft.

These original covers however are not the ones that are the most popular or recognizable. The best know book covers are the ones illustrated by Mary GrandPre. These covers offer more detailed illustrations that were geared towards a more adult audience.

More recently the covers were again redone, this time by Kazu Kibuishi. The question now becomes, which covers are the best designed/illustrated.

The original covers served their purpose as they pulled in the audience they were intended to (children/young adults). The later covers by Mary GrandPre offered a more visually through the hand lettering of the titles and full bleed imagery. This allowed the books to stand out as the illustrations incorporated text and became the full cover instead of being a blocked in image. This subtle step in the designs made them the recognizable covers that they are now. Kibuishi's covers now offer a very different illustration style while reverting back to a uniform type style and structure.

Each different style of book covers has it's successes and short-comings. In looking at each of the cover styles I want to take note of a few things I want to have in my own designs moving forward.

1. Maintain and asymmetrical balance in the overall cover.

2. Refrain from using centered type in at least half of my book covers.

3. Use more than one identifiable element from the story itself - characters, objects, etc.

4. Use a variety of color palettes.