The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

The challenge was to create 3 different book covers for this novel to express the themes of the novel. One cover would be designer's choice which could be a combination of anything, one would use typography, and one would be handmade.

After Reading the Novel I was impressed with the themes of Santiago and the great fish being the same. Santiago ponders on the pride of the great fish and sees it in himself as well. He says that he and the great fish are killing each other. I really wanted to use this theme in my designs. 

Designer's Choice: a study of Santiago (the old man) as the fish of the sea, especially that great marlin. I wanted to explore the idea of Santiago and the fish as the same beings so I used the creative strategy of Combination. Santiago had survived a long time. He was old. He had fought long and hard. The great marlin had also survived a long time. He, too, was old and had fought long and hard, outliving many other sea fish. They were the same. I tried to capture this idea in the image of an old man's face filling the shape of the fishes from the novel: the flyfish, tuna, sardines, and even the giant marlin.

Here, I wanted to express the theme of the marlin's greatness in life and death by using the creative strategy of Metaphor. I used the shape of the marlin to illustrate life as it could be jumping out of the water for breath and life. 

The old man steers his skiff ashore with only the skeleton of the great marlin left after the sharks had attacked and feasted. The skeleton of the type within the marlin shape signifies its nobility in death as well as life.  

"You did not kill the fish only to keep alive and to sell for food, he thought. You killed him for pride and because you are a fisherman. You loved him when he was alive and you loved him after. If you love him, it is not a sin to kill him. Or is it more?" 

        -The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

For the book cover using handmade materials, I tried out a few different ideas and settled on this one. The layered paper and shadows between is meant to convey a feeling of depth, looking up towards the surface of the water to see the small skiff resting at the top.  I employed the creative strategy of isolation. The small skiff is isolated in order to create a focal point. The dark color contrasts with the lighter colors signifying the light penetrating the surface of the water with the silhouette of the skiff blocking the sun from reaching the deep. This is meant to express the idea that this world is so much larger and grander than just one person. Santiago speaks of the greatness of man as a small being in the world when he says, “But man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated.”