‘The Penguin Random House Student Design Award is an opportunity for students interested in pursuing a career in design to experience real cover design briefs first-hand.’
In 2019, I entered the Penguin Student Design Award, I chose to redesign the cover for Wonder for the children’s cover award.
August (the main character) was born with a facial deformity, this is what the book is based around. I wanted my cover to reflect the fact that August’s family have the foundations of a regular family, yet there is something different about them, which is why, when you look closer, August is turned around and looking into the sky. Written in the stars is ‘Wonder’. This suggests that he was destined to have this life and use his positive spirit to inspire others.
The book has inspiring morals about how we should treat one another, it’s truly thought-provoking, which is why I felt that I could push this project further than just a book cover.
I decided to design a book relaunch, which not only promoted more sales of the book, but would be a chance to change the way we treat the people around us, particularly in schools.
The event would head to seven main cities in the UK, a seven day tour. They would take place in the summer holidays, this way families would be able to bring their children, and it would be valuable for the whole family.
Each event would run across the whole day, and consist of various things from workshops to talks and discussions. The workshops would revolve around bullying and fun group activities, really getting people to interact with each other.
Katie Piper suffers from severe burns and scars on her face, meaning she can relate with August. She is extremely inspiring and would be talking at the event, along with other people with similar life experiences. Their roles would be to convey how harmful bullying can be, and how important it is to consider the effects of how we treat each other. They would do book readings as well as holding talks and discussions.
I have based a lot of the identity around a space theme. This is because August is really into space and science in the book, making it a fitting and fun identity.
I have taken quotes from the book and used them in various touch points across the identity, including social media posts and merchandise. A lot of bullying takes place on social media, which is why I thought designing phone cases would be valuable. Every time they look at the phone case they will be reminded of the event and the powerful it was - which would hopefully make them think twice about their actions.
At the event, the guests will have a booklet which will tell them the plan for the day. At the back of the booklet they will be told about the ‘choose kind’ campaign, which gives them the opportunity to do a kind deed for a stranger at the event, record the deed, hand it in to the staff and have the chance to win a family trip to space camp.
The point of the campaign is to get the guests interacting with new people.
The campaign will then be carried on via social media, this ensures that even after the event, people will still be interacting and considering how they treat others.