Lesson 6

Lesson Goals

Texts

Core

• • “Sendlbeck — Animal Farm Book Cover,” Sascha Sendlbeck, Sascha Sendlbeck, 2018

Materials

Tools

• Animal Farm: Cover Design Brief

• Animal Farm: Cover Design Mockup

• Animal Farm: Cover Design Proposal

Question Sets

• Animal Farm: Section 3 Question Set

Editable Google Docs

• Animal Farm: Section 3 Question Set

Activity 1: Read – Discuss

We will review the Cover Design Brief and discuss the expectations for what we will include in our cover design.

Step 1

Return to the Cover Design Brief for the Animal Farm cover design project, specifically to the list of design expectations on page 2. Note that your cover design will need to use five elements:

• One or more images of your character

• Other, complementary images or graphic symbols

• Titling (layout and font designs)

• Copy (a claim, quote, and short summary)

• Graphic elements to unify the design

Step 2

Return to one of the graphic cover designs you examined earlier (by Sendlbeck or Troy) and discuss the design decisions made to address each of these elements, considering these questions:

1. What image(s) have been used to represent the character (Napoleon)? What do the details of the image(s) imply about the character and the story?

2. What other images or symbols have been used on the front cover?

3. How would you describe the layout and design of the titling (book title and author)? How does the titling contribute to the design?

4. What is included in the copy on the back cover? How do these elements contribute to the overall design?

5. How are visual elements used to unify the front and back cover designs?

Step 3

As directed by your teacher, access, review, and discuss the criteria you will try to meet as you develop your cover design. They are listed on the Cover Design Brief under Cover Design Criteria.

At this point in the unit, you will use these criteria to help you think about what your design needs to include and do.

1. Understanding of the allegory: The graphic design and use of copy indicate a clear and valid interpretation of Orwell’s allegory.

2. Depiction of the character’s role: The character images and related copy align with the first-person narrative and communicate a clear and valid interpretation of the character’s role in the allegory.

3. Use of character images: Images of the character are visually interesting and used as the centerpiece of the design.

4. Use of other graphic images: Other graphic images and symbols are used to enhance and unify the design.

5. Titling: The choices of fonts and layout of the title elements complement and enhance the graphic design.

6. Back cover copy: The interpretive quotation, claim, and story summary clearly and consistently communicate the designer’s interpretation of the allegory.

7. Use of graphic elements to unify the design: The front and back panels of the design work as a unified whole through the use of graphic elements that connect its images, titling, and copy.

8. Creativity and artistry: The cover design demonstrates a creative approach to interpreting the story and exhibits artistry in its creation or use of images and other design elements.

During the Section 3 Diagnostic lesson, you will use the Section 3 Diagnostic Feedback Form organized by the criteria to provide constructive feedback to a partner from your review team.

In the Culminating Task for the unit, these criteria will also be the organizers of a Culminating Task Rating Form used by you, your peers, and your teacher to inform and determine a final grade for your design.

Activity 2: Read – Discuss

We will be introduced to the Cover Design Mockup worksheet and discuss our draft Cover Design Proposal with a review partner.

Step 1

Access and review the Cover Design Mockup, a worksheet that you will use to propose and mock up your cover design.

You will use this to translate what you have written in your Cover Design Proposal into a visual representation, which you will review and submit for the Section 3 Diagnostic.

Listen as your teacher explains how you will use this resource, either as a worksheet you can write and draw on or as a digital template into which you can paste and lay out elements of your design (e.g., an image of your character).

Step 2

Rejoin your design review partner from the previous lesson. Read through and discuss the draft Cover Design Proposal you wrote for homework, focusing on what you intend to do to meet each of the cover expectations.

Use the Cover Design Mockup to explain how you will lay out and present the elements of your proposed design.

As a review partner, provide constructive feedback about the proposed design and mockup, using these review questions:

1. What seems most interesting about the proposed cover design?

2. What needs further thought in order to combine the design elements into a unified cover with a clear message about Animal Farm?

Activity 3: Write

We will use the Cover Design Mockup to layout and represent our proposed design for a new book cover featuring our character, to accompany and complement the first-person narrative we wrote from the character’s point of view.

Step 1

Begin to translate your design ideas (as presented in your draft design proposal) into a copy of the Cover Design Mockup.

Consider the feedback you received from your review partner in the previous activity.

Step 2

Begin by making a decision about the central image you will use to represent your character as the centerpiece of the front cover. This could be an image you have created yourself or that you have found online.

Think about where you will place the images on the front cover and how you will integrate them with the title: in between the main title and subtitle? Above or below the title? With the title superimposed over the images? Other ideas?

On the worksheet, mock up your layout and design for your central character image.

Step 3

Having thought about the layout of the title with your image, think about how you want to represent the copy of the title:

1. Which fonts might you use? How large?

2. Might you do something graphically interesting with the titles, as both Sendlbeck and Troy did?

3. What ideas might you consider from any of the other cover designs you have examined in the unit?

On the worksheet, mock up your title layout and design.

Step 4

Think about any other graphic images or symbols you might add to your front cover design.

On the worksheet, mock up how you might layout and design additional images.

Activity 4: Write

We will make decisions about what copy we will use for the back cover of our design and how we will lay the copy out and unify the back and front cover designs.

Step 1

Review the elements of copy that you will need to include in your cover design:

• A claim you have written that expresses your interpretation of Orwell’s allegory

• One or more quoted claims about the book written by a critic you have studied in the unit

• A short summary of the story, as your character might view it

Step 2

Note that you have already written several interpretive claims and have analyzed a number of quotes about the book (three of which are listed in the Cover Design Brief).

You will need to draft a 3-4 sentence summary to meet the third copy expectation. This summary should communicate the essence of the story as your character might view and explain it.

Step 3

For models, look at the copy on your edition of the book or on either of the two examples.

Also consider the following example, for a cover and narrative featuring Benjamin’s point of view:

George Orwell’s classic allegory Animal Farm tells the story of a utopian dream upended by greed and a hunger for totalitarian power. As recounted through the weary eyes of Benjamin the donkey, it is a condemnation of all those, in Stalin’s Soviet Union and elsewhere, who stand back and remain silent. Until it is too late…

Step 4

Recall how other designers (the designer of your edition of the book, Sendlbeck, or Troy) have made decisions about what to include as complementary copy on their back cover designs.

On the worksheet, mock up what you will include as copy and how you plan to lay it out.

Step 5

Consider and represent how you will use graphic elements or symbols to unify your front and back cover designs.

Indicate your ideas on the worksheet.

Activity 5: Read – Write

For homework, we will finalize our mockups for review in the next lesson. We will also compile the other evidence that we will include in our section 3 diagnostic portfolio.

Step 1

For homework, finalize the Cover Design Mockup.

Be prepared to read, review, and explain your design to other students in a class design review. You will also be submitting your mockup and proposal to your teacher as part of your Section 3 Diagnostic Portfolio.

Step 2

Review the additional requirements for what to include in your Section 3 Diagnostic Portfolio:

1. A short response that states and explains an evidence-based claim that analyzes Orwell’s allegory in response to Portfolio Question 1 (Lesson 3).

2. A short response that states and explains an evidence-based claim about an interesting visual interpretation of the story and how it aligns with your own interpretation of the allegory (Portfolio Question 2, Lesson 4)

Compile these examples of your thinking and work to be submitted to your teacher, along with your Cover Design Proposal and Cover Design Mockup, for the Section 3 Diagnostic Portfolio.