Redesign #2- Book Cover

My latest redesign is of the book The Nasty Bits by Anthony Bourdain. Upon first glances, I think this is a relatively sad cover for a guy as cool as Anthony Bourdain. He is a guy/critic that demands respect with highly articulated, and fiendishly hyperbolic, criticisms and opinions. His fake grin with the senstive looking face-resting-on-palm look just doesn't do his persona, or great writing, adequate justice. I used photoshop to recreate the true style he emits, which is to say confident and take-no-bullshit.  

Firstly, I had to choose a new picture to use. The one above didn't suffice, so here is what I chose:

Although I it, this picture has inherent problems. For example, when your eyes read this cover they want to go  from right to left, which is an unwanted characteristic of something you read left to right. It's almost like, symbolically, Bourdain is walking away from the opening of his book. To recreate a feeling of "follow my direction towards my story", I naturally turned the picture around. I wanted Bourdain to face the opening of his book, not seem to be walking away. Aesthetically, it's more pleasing. Here it is:

Contrast: In the first book cover, I'll admit, there is plenty contrast. The original has dark colors with a piercing red, but I don't feel the red and dark colors meld with each other very well. In this redesign, I made sure to go with probably the most classic contrast known to man: the black and white photo. But I didn't stop at the black and white. As you can see in the original photo, the photo is filled with color, from the sky to the graffiti, but in the redesign I chose to leave Bourdain as the sole personification of color against the black and white. He is a well known figure amongst a multitude of different communities and to have him brighten up what is to be a dark, black and white, cover is eye catching. Also, there are slightly different fonts and font sizes. The top where it says Anthony Bourdain is in Times New Roman, a conventional font, while the title Nasty Bits is in a font where every limb of each letter is the same thickness. Then the obvious quote from the New York Times below is in a more plain, smaller text. 

Repetition: The repetition is most represented in the colors. Other than Anthony Bourdain, the entire cover is in black and white. 

Alignment: Alignment is a key ingredient to all professional documents or covers. To help fulfill my alignment needs I made sure to use the grid system provided by photoshop. In the original book cover, when looking from the front, there is a quote on the top left corner and on the opposite side there is a red circle. I saw that there wasn't any particular alignment that they followed so I completely avoided putting anything in those two corners. The corners in which I sealed the title with the center of is completely aligned with the black rectangle's left side below it. The corners that I created to contain the title are aligned as well, which was something that I did take from the first cover. 

Proximity: The use of proximity is useful in the design of a book cover because, like this book, there sometimes a second title. In this case, besides The Nasty Bits, there is the title Collected Varietal Cuts, Usable Trim, Scraps, and Bones. To imply relationship, which is the purpose of proximity, I contained the second title within a rectangle and placed it directly under the primary title. Also, instead of placing the title directly on Anthony Bourdain's body, I placed the title right beside him so that it seems like an  accompaniment. 

Stylistic Choices:  As I introduced earlier, I dont believe the first cover represents Anthony Bourdain, or, more notably, his book title. The book is called The Nasty Bits yet he seemed to do his best to smile but in a truly happy manner; he looks more exhausted than happy. In true form, Anthony Bourdain is actually energetic despite his frail look but also, given the title, he should look more serious. So find what it really means to be him, I chose the photo of him walking along a graffitied wall with a more serious (more nasty) demeanor. Aside from changing the photo altogether I placed a barcode on the front of the cover to imply something nasty and eye-catching that doesn't belong on the cover despite its practicality.