The basic elements of book printing cover design: graphics [Buke printing]

The basic elements of book printing cover design: graphics [Buke printing]

Nowadays is the era of image reading, and the role and status of graphics are becoming increasingly prominent. The graphics on the cover include photography, illustrations, and patterns. Combining graphics and text is the design principle of excellent covers, which can stimulate and attract readers.

The graphics in cover design can be divided into concrete and abstract, as well as freehand graphics that fall between the two.

① Concrete graphics. Concrete beauty is easy to grasp and accept in design, and realistic techniques are often applied to the covers of children's knowledge books, popular books, and certain literary and technological books. Because children and readers with lower levels of education are more likely to understand specific images. And the covers of science and technology books and some architectural and daily necessities brochures use concrete graphics, which are scientific, accurate, and persuasive

② Abstract graphics. Sometimes it is difficult to extract and express specific images in the cover design of books in fields such as technology, politics, and education. In this case, abstract forms such as dots, lines, and surfaces can be used to convey the meaning and allow readers to feel it spiritually. Abstract beauty requires the designer's cultivation, painstaking conception, and artistic skills to achieve success. The design unfolded with abstract graphics can display deeper thinking activities and imagery. Conveying this imagery cannot be achieved solely by displaying meaningless symbols such as dots, lines, and surfaces, but rather by carefully combining and conveying emotions and artistic conception through design elements. In cover design, besides dots, lines, and surfaces, geometric forms are widely used. The combination of blocks and spatial segmentation in cover design is often a specific application of geometric forms. Geometric shapes do not directly reflect natural forms. They reflect the structural and motion laws of natural phenomena, capture the essential characteristics of things, and are the sublimation of natural forms. They remove the complexity and constraints of nature, and can convey an artistic conception through implicit, rational, regular, and organized images, which can resonate with people's emotions.

③ Freehand graphics. The use of the technique of "freehand brushwork" on literary covers is not just about extracting the content of the original work in the form of concrete and abstract "freehand brushwork", but rather expressing it in a form that is neither concrete nor abstract. Freehand brushwork "is a technique in Chinese painting that focuses on capturing the expression of form and spirit, using concise techniques to obtain a mood with charm and touching associations. Extending this concept, some people also refer to the method of changing natural patterns as "freehand change", which utilizes imagination on the basis of concise natural forms and pursues the expression of formal beauty. Exaggerate, vary, and combine. Using freehand brushwork as the image on the cover will make the expression of the cover more concrete in meaning and artistic interest.

The basic elements of book printing cover design: graphics [Buke printing]