Art 235 Book Cover: 1984
For this project, our class was given the opportunity to choose a book from a list of classics and make three different book covers from them all. The first has to be purely typographic, the second using physical materials, and the last is one that we can come up with on our own, but all of them need to be tied to symbols and themes from the book in order to express the content inside.
This was my Designer's Choice book cover. I went for a simplistic look, while aiming for a bold statement. I found that my favorite book covers didn't rely on intricate details; rather, they effectively conveyed their message through simple ideas. In this design, I used a group of stick figures, rendered in muted tones to convey neutrality, while highlighting one in red to symbolize rebellion. The font I selected from our student font pack reminded me of fonts I have seen from the 80's.
Above is my handmade cover. While I don't consider myself a painter, I focused on simplicity again to depict a rat. Although not a central character, the rat symbolizes fear, which ultimately pushes Winston to betray the rebellion. I went for a watercolor effect to add to the muted look. Also, I depicted the rat's tail as frayed to signify the unraveling of Winston's rebellion. The numbers are designed to appear somewhat bloody to enhance the theme.
The typography cover was my favorite of all. It was one of my earlier ideas that had minimal revisions. I aimed to create the look of a list of banned words from 1984, with each word crossed out, except for the title and author, of course.
