Don Quixote is a Spanish epic written by Miguel De Cervantes in 1605 that is widely considered the first modern novel. Tasked with designing a cover for this classic that would represent the concepts in the story more than the events within, I was happy to take on the challenge. Below each design I have included a short explanation of what I was trying to convey, and how it fits the tale of Don Quixote.

For this first cover, I wanted to play around with the concept of chivalric romances and how they are portrayed in the book. Don Quixote includes many scenes that parody those in the romance novels that Don Quixote is obsessed with and turn them on their heads, so I wanted to try to invoke similarities to a romance novel in this design. Of course, that is not the only reason for this design. The flower is a wilted saffron crocus, which is grown in Castile-La Mancha, the place where Quixote's travels take place. Despite the eye-catching appearance of the crocus on the cover, when you realize it is dying it serves to resemble the way that the times of the chivalric romance Quixote is so enamored have also passed. Times have changed, and the time for the flower to bloom has long passed, and no amount of trying will bring it back to its former glory. 

I decided to go for a stained glass look for my second cover, because I think it is a good way to represent Don Quixote's mental state. The design is a patchwork of different pieces, cobbled together to form a whole, with none of the pieces lining up exactly as they should. From a distance, it might look like a typical stained glass design, but as you get closer you begin to realize the flaws. In the same way, Don Quixote portrays himself as a noble knight errant, while in truth he is just a madman who has lost his grip on reality. 

Despite the similarity in utilizing the stained glass look for this last cover, my intentions with this cover are to convey a different aspect of the book. Stained glass, like any glass, is subject to breaking. For this design I decided to make the title of the book appear cracked and damaged, with shards of glass falling from it, to represent the way Don Quixote himself's mental state is fractured, as well as to give it a feeling of being old. The author's name is solid to provide further contrast between it and the title. Don Quixote himself is a relic of a time long gone, even when the book was brand new, however, the story told by Miguel De Cervantes is still relevant hundreds of years after it was written for a reason.