This assignment, given in my Image Design class, was to select a book, redesign the cover and explain why and how we did what we did.

I chose the Usborne Detective's Handbook as the subject of my redesign. In the original, everything is well balanced and generally symmetrical. Bright colors were used, and the overall feel of the cover was cartoony. The theme seemed to be targeted toward children. While this is a simple solution that may be effective toward that particular audience, the book contains quite a lot of information that a professional detective might find useful.

With that in mind, I redesigned the cover to give it a more dark and mysterious feel, while keeping many of the same elements of the original. I thought the back cover could use more information, so I paraphrased a section of the book marked 'About This Book,' and entered it below the title I had made. I used fonts that I considered would be easily identified as having something to do with detectives. I also used a color scheme, using black, blue, and white.