OUGD404 - Design Principles - Cover design ideas

After getting on with the design of my book I realised that I hadn't really thought about the cover of it. So I started doodling some different versions and scanned them in to create some initial ideas. 

I started with something really simple using the green eggs and ham illustration from the book. The contrast between the dark green and the white works really well here so perhaps I could use some green stock with white screen printed onto it.

I then tried with some different text styles and used a plate to frame it all. I feel that this makes the book look almost like a cook book and not a children's book. 

I thought that I should try a different colour rather than the obvious green. I thought that this shade of orangey-red complemented the green so it would go well. It is also similar to the colour that is on the current cover of green eggs and ham. I do like the simplicity of just the hand rendered text on a plain background but I can’t help but feel like there is something missing. It doesn’t reflect all of the character of the book.

So I took the illustration of the ham and eggs and made it into a wallpaper like pattern to use in the background of the cover. I thought that this would work a lot better as there would be a pattern all around the slip cover rather than it being blank.

I asked for some feedback off my peers and they much prefer the green colour to the orange as it relates more to the title. Also they preferred the patterned backgrounds to the plain ones as they thought that the illustrations would catch someone's eye more. Additionally they said that having 'eggs & ham' on one line worked much better because it didn't look as squished together.