Conceptual Book Covers
In this post, you will see three conceptual book covers that were created for the book 'Don Quixote' by Miguel de Cervantes.
The objective of this project was to design three cover variations of the same book, while keeping certain criteria in each one. The first cover was limited to type only,the second was limited to being handmade and the third was designer's choice. No additional text could be included, other than the book title and the author.
Cover 1: Type only
I decided to use chain to create the typography for this cover. I wanted to represent the feeling of entrapment and captivity that the main character, Don Quixote felt about his day to day life. I joined the chains together with more chain to add to the concept of feeling chained up in his thoughts with no escape. I decided to keep the background white as a way to show the blank canvas of his imagination.
Cover 2: Handmade
For the handmade cover, I wanted to combine past and present by adding a man from the present day and a knight from the past. I wanted the man's countenance to convey a feeling of sadness or depression. The upside down positioning leads him to dark places within his mind. On the opposite side is everything he wishes he could become, a powerful knight ready to go on adventures. In a way it resembles a playing card with two faces. One face is his reality and the other his illusion.
I used torn pages from an old book to frame the corners and also cut out letters from the pages to create the type for the author. The title was created using the same pages, but this time crumpled and bent into the shape of letters. The white background was used to make the images stand out more and also to keep a sense of purity and reverence in the feelings portrayed.
Cover 3: Designer's Choice
Designer's choice allowed us to use any style or format we wanted. I had sketched this concept of a man's hand crawling out of a pile of books, escaping the grasp of the knight's hand trying to take over.
It's is a metaphor of escaping our illusions in order to reach our reality, however, there are chains above him ready to entrap him again. It is a struggle of the power of the mind. The title was created with metal pieces and chain, the author with letters cut out from an old book. The man's hand was photographed and photoshopped into a knight's armor.
The ones that didn't make the cut
Below are some additional designs I proposed for this project. In the end, I chose my three strongest designs.
