Sourcing materials

I did some research and started looking for materials that I will be using to create my dust jackets. I found that most book jackets use are heavyweight (around 190gsm) silk coated paper. I looked online to see how much they would cost to buy, focused on looking for rolls of paper or A3 or A2 sheets paper because of the dimensions that I will be using for the book jackets. I found that this type of paper costs a lot of money, from £30 to £50. Sadly, I wont be able to buy the silk coated paper as it is too expensive for something that I will only be using for this project and wont be using a lot of. I decided that I'm going to talk to my art teachers and our college's art technician to see if they know any other alternatives.

I have mentioned that I will also be using glow in the dark paints to make the book covers more interesting and I also think that it will compliment the genre and nature of my books.. Using the glow in the dark paint I want to emphasise the dystopic element of always being watched as featured in all of my three chosen books. I chose the colour red because it is very much present in The Handmaid's Tale and Fahrenheit 451 and it is something that I can easily link into 1984. I was hoping to find a bright red paint that also glows red in the dark because I want to keep that theme of red constant where the book i both in dark and light places. However, again the paint that I found was too expensive for a project that I will only be doing once and also, the red paint in daylight is not as bright as I want them to be judging from the reviews and the photographs provided.

I found this website which has a lot of useful information about dust jackets. Howevever, sinve the site is mostly aimed at self-publishers and authors looking at how they can publish their books, it was a bit hard to navigate and narrow down the articles that I need even with the help on the sites built in search tool or the categorised aritcles. The website gives inspiratation on book coverdesigns and also provides templates for book covers and dust jackets.

The website:

http://www.biddles.co.uk/book-printing/preparing-jackets/

Overall, I was a bit disappointed as I am still not able to source any materials that I can use for my EPQ. However, I am hoping that my talk with my teachers and experts will be helpful. Also, I will re-think the placement of the glow in the dark paints in the dust jackets or If I will use them at all. However, I was glad that I found the website, biddles.co.uk, and I will be using it for help. Furthermore, as I have said in my previous post back in Spetember, I always have a choice to create a digital book mock up online rather than create a physical copy.I will also look into other sites that may be able to help me, altough there are not many as I have already searched. My next steps will also include starting to polish up my designs and oganise a photoshoot to take some photos that I will be using for my EPQ.

#research