Kayla Hart

Book Cover Design

The goal of this project was to design a book cover for my novel, Circularity, that was visually intriguing, with the effect of sparking the readers interest to pick up the book. The final outcome was to create a professional, publishable design that could successfully be displayed on a store bookshelf. The circularity is a sci-fi novel, so science fiction genre conventions needed to be taken into consideration with the design of the cover, to meet audience expectations of a science fiction book.

Many design stages were cycled through in this project, starting from initial planning and sketches, followed by a first draft cover drawn in 2D in Adobe Illustrator. Through feedback and consultation with the project supervisor, the project evolved into a 3D designed scene of the science fiction corridor, modelled in Maya. Some key aspects of the cover that transformed it to the current look, were the addition of dramatic lighting throughout the scene, neon lights reflecting onto the floor, modelling greeble onto the walls and roof, and a low camera perspective to view the corridor.

The portal (called the Circularity) is an important feature of the novel. As such, this is a key graphic on the front cover. The contrast in colour of the portal’s glowing pink swirls to a grey/blue corridor is designed to make the portal stand out. In addition, the bright lights lead the viewers eyes down the corridor, reinforcing the portal as the focal point of the cover.

Website Design – Butchulla Aboriginal Corporation

The goal of this task was to create a website for the Butchulla Aboriginal Corporation (BAC) that would be a method of communication between the BAC and the wider community. The website would be a place to share the rich heritage, culture, language and laws of the Butchulla people, as well as encouraging visitors of K’gari (Fraser Island) to consider the protection of environment and culture.

This project was a group task, where myself and another team member were responsible for the creation of the website, and a third team member responsible for creating the video content. This project involved listening carefully to the requests from the BAC, and implementing this within the website in an exceptional manner.

I was primarily responsible for the initial set up of the website in wordpress.org, which involved creating the menus, website layout, and wireframing the content that would appear on each page. I then worked together with the second group member, who created the visual look, handwritten typographic choices and colour palette, to apply this cohesive style throughout the whole website.

Design choices that had to be taken into consideration were simplicity of layout and use, where information is easily accessible, and the final design of the website having a clear visual flow.