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Consumer Behaviour in Action: The story behind the cover

9780195525601

Consumer Behaviour in Action, published in January 2015, was nominated for Best Designed Educational Tertiary Book at the 63rd Australian Book Design Awards, and we are proud to announce the book won its category.

Now Regine Abos, the designer, talks us through the cover and internal design process of Consumer Behaviour in Action:

  1. What was the brief you were given?
    The brief was to come up with a slick, polished design that would appeal to second and third year business/marketing students.
  2. How did you come up with the concept for this cover?
    LinginternalI always try to focus my designs on things or concepts that I’m actually interested in so that I enjoy the work and produce better results. So for this book, I put forward a few different concepts but really pushed for the one that featured one of my favourite things: shoes! And what better way to encapsulate consumer behaviour than a woman’s love for shoes? Luckily the publishers and the marketing team agreed. I then added tags and receipts throughout the book to further reinforce the theme of consumption.
  3. What made you choose the photograph on the cover?
    This particular photo encompassed both the social aspect (photographing her shoes then sharing photos via social media) and the psychological aspect (the wants versus the needs) of the topic. The retro colour scheme is also very “now” and therefore appealing to students.
  4. What is your favourite thing about the cover?
    The way the receipt interacts with the photograph in the background; it gives it a business-like yet friendly feel.
  5. What did you enjoy most about working on this cover?
    Looking through photographs of shoes!!
  6. What was the most challenging aspect?
    One of the authors initially had reservations about the cultural aspect of showing feet and shoes. Feet in Asian and Middle Eastern countries have quite a negative connotations: they’re often regarded as filthy as its where negative energy leaves the body and it’s a sign of disrespect if you enter someone’s home with your shoes on. The author’s suggestion was to use mobile phones instead, but since technology changes so quickly, the consensus in the end was to go with the shoes. Whew!
  7. What is something about the design of this book we might not know?
    The running heads were meant to have little Converse sneakers on them but as a compromise with the author mentioned above, these were removed.

Congratulations on designing a beautiful book Regine!

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