This was my entry for a bookmark contest hosted by Eastwind Books of Berkeley. I was informed by my friend and I decided to give it a try to test my skills and for the experience.
For reference, I contacted Eastwind through Instagram for any pictures of previous bookmarks, while also researching the store and their merchandise. Eastwind is known for having Asian/Asian American literature. Based off this information, I searched for different bookmark designs to brainstorm ideas. Some designs with quotes caught my attention, and they gave me an idea for using a literature quote by an Asian author, as quotes can have a strong impact.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B4Vw_FiA17A/?igshid=1qkzq4a0b2xwc (one of Eastwind's bookmarks)
A few sketches were made to utilize the quote idea. I wanted to go for something minimal to emphasize the quote that would be used.
After making sketches, I researched some quotes by Asian authors to find the right one to feature. I came across a quote by Kevin Kwan, the author of Crazy Rich Asians, and thought it was perfect to include in the bookmark.
With a rough idea and a chosen quote, variations were made in Adobe Illustrator. One of the bookmark examples inspired me to make two potential book icons. The first one was made by sketching a closed book, taking a picture, and adding it to Illustrator to trace over. The second was made by taking a picture of one of my own books laying down, then adding it to Illustrator to trace over.
After playing around with coloring, borders, and aligning, I decided to go with the last variation. For the front, the quote was typed using Oswald font from Google Fonts and centered within the border, with the book icon on top and author on the bottom in Arial font. For the back, the bookstore information was typed in Arial font and also centered within the border. Just like the bookmark on the Instagram post provided by Eastwind, I made the name large and the contact information small. I had to slightly shrink the email address since it was touching the border on the sides. The bookmark was colored black because it seemed to make the quote stand out more.
I did not win, but I enjoyed having the experience of entering my first design contest.
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