A BOOK JACKET IN 3 WAYS
THE DIARY OF A TEENAGE GIRL BY PHOEBE GLOECKNER
FALL 2022
A book jacket in three ways is a great project to demonstrate range and an understanding of metaphor and clever visual connections. While there were multiple ways we were allowed to approach the prompt, I chose to imagine my book- The Diary of a Teenage Girl by Phoebe Gloeckner, a heartbreaking mixed-media novel that's partially based on the author's own life as a teenager- through the lense of three different genres.
My genres of choice were Young Adult Literature, Realistic Fiction, and True Crime, all genres that aligned with themes throughout the novel.
Our final deliverables were three book jacket flats and digital mock-ups as well as physical prints of the covers trimmed and folded.
PROCESS
RESEARCH
A personal goal I set was to utilize distinctly different visual techniques for each of my book covers, hopefully pushing my designs to places they wouldn't have gone otherwise. My plan was-
YA Lit: illustration
Realistic Fic: photography
True Crime: mixed media
PROCESS
CONCEPTING
My True Crime concepting led me to focus on the relationship between the main character, Minnie, and the predatory relationship she was in with her mother's boyfriend, Monroe. While even in 1970's San Francisco, a man in his late 30's having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl was considered 'taboo', today it's downright frightening. I wanted to explore visual metaphors that highlighted the power imbalance between Minnie and Monroe without infantilizing Minnie, which would take away from some of the key points of the novel. Don't worry- while my refined sketch may have abandoned these goals, I'll return to them shortly.
In YA Literature, some of my favorite cover designs are ones that don't showcase a single human subject, but yet can paint such a rich and complex picture about the novel and the characters within. I'm not a huge fan of the contemporary memphis art style that's swept book covers across America, so I wanted to avoid that while still targeting the same audience. A few of these concepts were based off of illustrations within the book done by the author, Phoebe Gloeckner. The concept I ended up refining was referenced from an illustration from within the novel- you can see it next to the original front cover in the introduction section of this post.
My Realistic Fiction concept was one of those that had popped into my head during a very early stage of ideation and refused to give up. I wanted to really highlight the juxtaposition between the maturity level Minnie believes she is, all grown up and sexually mature at 15, compared to the reality that she very much is still a child. While my original instinct was to include graphic nudity, as the novel itself doesn't shy away from it, but I received feedback that the nudity, while shocking, appeared almost clinical, and closer to True Crime than Realistic Fiction, so I chose photos that included undergarments in my draft.
PROCESS
FIRST DRAFTS
True Crime
The background of this collage is a police report, and the figures in the car (Minnie and Monroe) are the actors from the 2015 movie! As you can see, I decided to roll with the wolf-and-rabbit metaphor but in a (slightly) more subtle way.
Realistic Fiction
I had a lot of fun splicing images together in Photoshop for this cover, and adding texture to make it a more convincing paper spliced look.
Young Adult Literature
This was definitely the most complex cover of the bunch, but I was super pleased with how my version of Phoebe's illustration came out. As you can see, the type wasn't quite there yet, but this draft had good bones.
I enjoyed working on this project as it allowed me to push myself out of my comfort zone in different ways in all three of the book jackets I designed. It was also a welcome foray into publication design, something I’ve been interested in pursuing in the past, and after this project I'm interested in looking further into. I also learned a few welcomed lessons about InDesign (place, don’t paste!). I hope that I represented The Diary of a Teenage Girl and Phoebe Gloeckner well.
All images, logos, products, videos, and other copyrights or trademarks featured, mentioned, or referred to within the project are the property of Phoebe Gloeckner. The use of the trade name, copyright, or trademark in my student portfolio for identification and reference purposes only and does not imply any association with the copyright or trademark holder of their product or brand. My work is not affiliated, associated, authorized, maintained, sponsored, endorsed by, or in any way officially connected with these copyright or trademark holders. Phoebe Gloeckner and North Atlantic Books does not sponsor or endorse any of the shown work. I declare no affiliation, sponsorship, nor any partnerships with any copyright or trademark holders.
