Penguin Book Research

Penguin Book Research

The Outsiders

The book The Outsiders is set in 1965. 

An era of Rock ’n Roll, greasers and crime. With such bands like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Elvis Presley and Jimi Hendrix. Greasers were a subculture that originated in the 1950’s, best known for their greased back hair, denim and leather jackets. 

The subculture became popular as a form of rebellion.

The 1960’s was the height of retro and pop art, with such artists as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein which we researched about in our last assignment.

Also a major art style was Retro. This art style became popular in the 1940’s and 1950’s following World War 2 and the propaganda posters that were released to get people to join the war.

Here is some artwork by Designer Eric Tan

His artwork consists of retro art style which is suitable for the book and era that it is set in. Personally i like this art style that is used in these posters and will most likely use this art style when creating my own version of the book cover.

As you can see in these two examples they have a retro style which is a popular art style in the 1950’s, based on World War 2 propaganda style artwork. He would illustrate images to achieve the retro style. The top image is based on London. It has stereotypical English elements to the picture such as Big Ben in the background, a pint of beer and a plane flying around at the top of the poster.

The second image is a poster supporting the army. This could be a redesign of a World War 2 poster. The poster features an illustration of Captain America who is a famous superhero created in 1941. It is likely that Captain America was used in World War 2 to help inspire and motivate soldiers in the war.