Exercise: Making a mock-up

The original cover is an image of a sunset – mainly due to the references made throughout the book to the different colours that make up the sky/a sunset and this being a moment of realisation for the narrator, in the literal sense and metaphorically too. The image also relates to the location of the story (not explicitly stated – Northern Ireland).

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36047860-milkman   Accessed 09/01/19

My immediate ideas were linked to the story’s commentary on the power of a rumour and how people who are fearful will willingly believe whatever is easiest. There are two milkmen in the story, so I was picturing a milk bottle, but being clouded, representing a spreading rumour/lies/dark thoughts/the corruption of the main character.

I also wondered how a sunset/colourful sky would look through a glass bottle – a distortion of the world through the introduction of the milkman.

To get the effect I wanted with the bottle, I first tried acrylic paint, but didn’t like the way this looked (too thick, fluffy, cloudy). Watercolour paints seemed to work much better – it was easier to make splotches and create a more fluid, watery effect.

I then cut out the bottle and trialled it over several edited sunsets that I had taken (photographs edited contrast/brightness slightly). To match my intentions, I chose an image that had no blue/no obvious blue patches, linking to the message in the story (what you think you know is sometimes false).

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Next, I used Microsoft Word to create the mock-up in a document, putting the author’s name and publisher’s logo over the top.

The final cover is pretty much how I envisioned. I’m not completely satisfied with the text on the bottle, but the textures and colours are striking and the towering bottle is intriguing. It was tricky to strike a balance between the text being part of the bottle and ensuring the text stood out enough to be noticed.

I didn’t encounter too many technical difficulties. Placing the image of the bottle over the edited sunset was simpe and then the text and logo could also be overlaid easily. The difference between the two (the sunset and the bottle) is quite stark, so I played with brightness and contrast a little to make the cover look as realistic as possible. I printed the cover onto thick paper at the same size as the original and this looked convincing.