Tool and Purpose:

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This book cover design was created using Adobe Illustrator for a course at Toronto Metropolitan University titled Graphic Design.

About the Book:

Blockbusters: Hit-Making, Risk-Taking, and the Big Business of Entertainment is the culminating efforts of Anita Elberse’s investigation into the creative media and entertainment industries. The Lincoln Filene Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School, Professor Elberse has been given an exclusive opportunity over a near decade to interview top entertainment executives in the pursuit of understanding their decision-making processes and the successes and failures behind entertainment products.

My Design Process:

My intention with the book-cover redesign is to represent the creative media and entertainment industries that the author discusses in her book through a pictorial narrative. I do believe that the initial design of the book-cover is executed well with the elegant use of typography. However, the use of the word “blockbusters” as the main design focus for the book cover does not visually inform the potential reader that Anita Elberse explores several creative industries within her research. The word “blockbusters” has been culturally associated with the film industry and DVD rental stores within North American, because of the long bankrupted and closed but yet to be forgotten movie rental store “Blockbuster”. The dominant cultural association that many readers have with the word “blockbusters” is that of a failed business from a previous era.

The book Blockbusters does primarily contain qualitative information about the film industry, yet it dives into related creative sectors such as broadcasting, sports, publishing and music, which have no direct correlation with the term “blockbuster” amongst potential North American readers. Therefore, by providing icons that represent similarly linked industries, my design facilitates a visual mental construct for the potential reader to connect the title of the book, Blockbusters, with other creative and entertainment sectors that are written about in the book.