Research into The Outsiders Plot Summary and Book cover designs

Plot Summary 

This is the summary of the story that I wrote. 

• Story is based in America 
• Ponyboy Curtis is a member of a youth group known as the greaser due to their long hair.
• The Greaser’s main rival group is known as the Soc, also known as social. This group represent the upper class youths in West Side
• A member, Ponyboy, is threatened by the gang members of Soc. Other follow members of the Greasers prevent Ponyboy from having throat from getting cut
• The Greaser gang consists of a high school drop out, Sodapop(his kind brother) and his eldest brother, Darry.
• Their parents were killed and ever since, Darry has been responsible for the caring for Ponybo Other following also consists of a sensitive 16 year old boy, Johnny, Dally who has a long criminal record and Darry’s friend, Steve and Two Bit (Consider as funniest member of the group)
• 3 members watched a movie behind Soc girls
• Dally is informed to stop flirting and harassing the woman(he walks away)
• Both Ponyboy and Johnny started having a conversion with Cherry and Marica.
• As it turns out, Ponyboy and Cherry share many things in common
• Two-Bit and the rest of the Greasers arrive. They decide to guide the woman to Two-Bit’s house in order to give them a drive home.
• A fight almost occurs when 2 of the drunken members of the Socs arrive. To prevent another battle between the two groups, the woman leave with their boyfriends. 
• There is an argument between Ponyboy and Darry is caused by Ponyboy ranting about Darry criticising him. 
• The outcome of this argument was Darry slapping him and Ponyboy fleeing from the house
• Ponyboy meets and interacts with Johnny. A decision was made to travel to park where they encounter Bob and Randy with several members of the Socs
• The Greaser attempted to escape by approaching the fountain area. Bob manages to grab Ponyboy and hold his heading underneath the water.
• He suddenly becomes unconscious but after he wakes up, he discovers that he is laying on floor next to Bob. 
• Johnny had no choice but to kill Bob because the Soc intended to drown Ponyboy. 
• Both characters approach Dally Winston because they thought he is the likest candidate to get them out of this mess
• Dally sends them to a deserted church in the neighbouring town. 
• To ensure their disguise are intact, they cut and died their hair. They read a book to prevent people in the town from recognising their mannerisms
• Dally informs the members that during their of confinement in the church, the rivalry between the two groups have escalated. Cherry is also revealed as a spy working for the Greasers
• Johnny intends to give himself in to solve the problem
• As the characters are exiting the church, they discover that a group of children have wandered into the church that is caught on fire
• After the last of the children are rescued, the roof collapses and Ponyboy is knocked out. 
• He wakes up in the ambience but later discovers that his body is damaged and the 2 members are still alive. The nurse diagnosed him with burns and bruise. Although Dally is in a acceptable condition, Johnny is suffering with a broken back and is in a critical conduction. 
• Darry collects Ponyboy at the hospital and both of them make up 
• The following morning’s newspaper had an article that portray Ponyboy and Dally as saviors. However, it is revealed that Johnny will be charged for manslaughter as a result of killing Bob. 
• Both Ponyboy and Johnny have to attend court in order to allow the judge to determine whether they should sent to a boys home.
• Ponyboy and Two-Bit encounters Randy but Randy proposes not to fight at the ramble due to turn of events
• When Ponyboy and Darry visit Johnny, he is still in a weaken condition.
• The patient instructs Ponyboy to give the book that they reading whist hiding in the church 
• They also discover that Dally’s state is stronger. He requested a black-handled switchblade from Two-Bit for unknown reason.
• The brothers met Cherry whilst going home. Feeling responsible for Bob’s death, she refuses to visit Johnny at the hospital. Ponyboy in particular brands her as a traitor. 
• Due to Johnny condition is getting very critical, Dally escapes from hospital and enters the ramble after the Greases defeat the Soc. He instructs Ponyboy to travel to the hospital but they find Johnny dying when they reach the ward. Johnny dies and then Dally goes into a panic attack and runs outside.  Ponyboy feels disorientated whilst walking home.
• He inform the group about Johnny’s demise. Suddenly Dally interrupts and announces that he has just robbed a grocer and is chased by the police. When they discover him, he had already resisted against the police by pointing a gun just after being surrounded by them. Doing that alone caused the police to gun him down, which caused Ponybody to lose consciousness.
• The cause of the concussion is the result of a Soc member kicking him in the head. (Spent many days in bed)
• When his condition improves, he attends the hearing from the Judge.
• The judge acquaints with the death of Bob. A decision has been made to allow Ponyboy to stay with his brother 
• From this point, he feels empty and has contempt for his brother. The grades are slipping at school and loses his hunger for eating for food very often. The leader of the group
• Sodapop attempts to stop the hostile environment by addressing his feelings to Ponyboy. 
• Ponyboy realises the family values, he agree to stop being hostile towards Darry. 
• The wake up call caused the Ponyboy to remember both members’ death with feeling hurt. The conclusion of the story reveals that he starts writing this story in English classes, which turns out to be the book. 

Existing Book Covers 

For this assignment, I thought it would be a good idea to have a detailed analysis on existing book covers for the Outsiders. This will enable me to get a good insight of current designs, typeface, colour scheme that other people have done. To achieve this, I am going to review their design principles, like the signifiers, denotations, other design concepts and how they are interpreted. 

This is the book cover that is generally seen by the public. The cover consists of plan san serif text for the title and the writer's name.  I consider the design of the book as dull due to the lack of vibrant colours. Although the leather jacket can be associated with clothes featured in the story, the overall design needs improving to attract a younger audience. 

Gestalt principles and visual language

In terms of the design, the use of  an anomaly makes the brown and brighter cones stand out As for the visual language, the cones are positioned next to each other to make the layout clean. There is a large contrast of colours used in the design to ensure that the focal point stands out. The background colour is unsaturated, therefore, it comes across as dull as well. The use of bitmap based images like the texture and the imagery, this was developed in Photoshop. The main thing that stands out is the use of the Penguin Books logo. Using a bright and bold orange on a very pale  background makes it stand out, therefore it allows the audience to recognise the publisher of the book. 

This book cover relies on an iconic signifier, the cone. This forms a cover featuring 7 cones. The number of cones on the image makes a reference the number of members of the Greasers.  

The typography is one aspect of the design that should be improved. The kerning and tracking should be improved because the SIDE letters of the word of The Outsiders looks very difficult to the read. The thickness of the stem should be increased slightly because the letters look little bit too condensed. 

However, the text does offer readability due to the lower cased,  modern san serif text  being used for the first world. It enables the audience differentiate the two words, making the title design more captivating. 

Compared to the previous example of the book cover,  this book cover makes references to images associated with the gangs in the United States. This photo contains the following iconic signifiers: a leather jacket and a light. This book cover shows a man wearing a leather jacket.  The light connotes that the person wearing a jacket is outside. It also reinforces the mean of the tile. This particular image is referent to a popular scene in the movie where the gangs fight known as the ramble. 

The lighting effects makes the overall design look dynamic and vibrant. Orange is a powerful colour that can easily gets notice.  The use of a bright orange light source in the background make the audience focus their attention to the top right corner. The light source reflects on the jacket, therefore, it makes it the secondary focal point.

 As for the composition, the title of the book is noticeable because it is located near the light source. It is also positioned on a semi transparent rectangle. The overall background and foreground imagery makes the design look busy and enables the book cover to come across as intense due to the lighting effects. 

This is another basic book cover for the story. Overall, I think that the background imagery does signify the United States, the setting of the story. The style of the buildings and the railway are associated with America because they are regularly used in Westerns and other genre of American films. The overall colour tone of the design is visually pleasing to look at because the lighting effects makes the imagery look dynamic. The highly saturated colour also enhances the feeling of a sun set. However,  the image should include a men running on the track to promote more aspects of the story. 

This example is one of my favourite design chosen from the internet. This book cover uses death as the main theme to promote the story as having intense and elements.  The book shows a skull that is made of lined paper paper surrounded by a black area that resembles with long hair. This scary looking book cover of The Outsider connotes that gang members do die in the story. The use of black surrounding the area is also another iconic signifier makes a the skull resemble of a Greaser.

The poster uses a tile that is a arbitrary  sign and iconic signifier that makes reference to the rebels. The title suggests that being an outsider is a dangerous life style. Gestalt principles have being used to make the design look captivating. The shape positioned behind  the title is not entirely enclosed therefore, this is known as closure. To compels the audience to see the empty eyes, continuations is featured on a curly piece of hanging hair that ends just above the eyes. 

The use of bitmap images suggest that Photoshop is the primary program that this artwork was produced in. Adjustment layers and the effects are applied to the background to make it resemble of a comic strip. The design used masking tools to make the lined paper form a shape of a skull 

This is a very aggressive book cover that features signifies the one important section of the story. The indexical signifier is a powerful sign  that enables the cover to make an impact. The cover shows a church being burned down. Ponyboy mentioned that he left a cigarette on the floor. This connotes that the object is the cause of the fire. The use of red and orange makes fire look striking, therefore it makes it the main focal point. 

The colours also correspond with the text colour. It makes the title look interesting because it reinforces the fire theme.  The use of these strong colours enable the design to look very dynamic and vibrant. Having bool colour portrays The Outsider as an intense story to read. 

The book's back cover has a negative layout that decreases the impact of the design. Not using other reference to other parts of the story prevents the book design promoting the plot's theme effectively. Applying more iconic signifiers that emphasise dangerous gangs and symbolic signs, such as the American flag, would enhance the layout and enable the visual language to tell a more detailed story. 

This is one of the best book cover that has in fact entered the same competition. This is a book that is targeting a young audience who are in the 5-16 age demographic. For this book, the intended audience are students at secondary school and very young adults due to the name and the themes of the story. 

The overall design includes a dynamic colours on artistic drawing of the car. The use of yellow and red creates a large contrast of colours ,which enables the car to stand out. The use this iconic signifier suggests that this story is set in the 1950's or 60's.  The typeface used also has artistic characteristics to make the book cover look vintage. The style of the stems and the overall letter design resemble of a tire marks on a road. This is a good use of  iconic and arbitrary signifiers that connotes that this is a crime based book that features a fast, red Corvette. 

References:

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/outsiders/summary.html
http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327992216l/32946.jpg
http://thefoxisblack.com/blogimages//Dmitry-Svoiski-outsiders-cover.jpeg
http://thefoxisblack.com/blogimages//Kevin-Allen-Jr-Outsiders.jpeg
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaoAq1KdX1S4Uf4SF3ei12xFjRojR1RslJ2IB898mjqIeCbmXxzglupa-w2uv1uCnIwW7JVVb6lASjzqaoIftDdQi9SUA3y8gGzbydG4ZJvjge9gn3G5Vv24plC82rcu7LGrbMlFi4x3I/s1600/The-Outsiders-Cover.jpg
http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/0/573/154293/outsiders_test_cover14.jpg
http://payload16.cargocollective.com/1/5/190239/2624476/Screen%20Shot%202012-04-05%20at%201.12.44%20PM.png
http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2011/340/1/9/alternate_book_cover_for_the_outsiders_by_jamiabrielle-d4ibbap.jpg
http://i43.tower.com/images/mm109180411/outsiders-hinton-s-e-hardcover-cover-art.jpg
http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4635158256052170782#editor/target=post;postID=4069118894533508600;onPublishedMenu=posts;onClosedMenu=posts;postNum=1;src=link
http://www.behance.net/gallery/Puffin-Design-Awards-The-Outsiders-Book-Cover/11775265