Penguin Random House UK launched the Student Design Award 2018, challenging us to design a new book cover for one of three books. I chose to recreate the book cover of Noughts & Crosses. Racism and discrimination is not new news when it comes to the world but to witness it in a reversed role whilst reading this book made me a lot more interested and challenged to design something in which would resonate with the audience. My choice in book cover design came from the labelling in which society implements upon you. I learnt how to exhibit an idea which would be a physical aspect, meaning the label and how much of the image behind to reveal so there was still a sense of new discovery when actually bought and tested by the customer themselves.
To expand in more detail, as a society, we are prone to labelling someone for what they have done or who they are, for example, in terms of real life racism and history, if you had dark skin then you were known as 'the black one' or even the 'N word' etc. In terms of Noughts & Crosses, Callum was accused of raping and kidnapping someone of the opposite race. This is then what Callum was known for and eventually hung for. He was labelled as such before seeing or hearing the truth and the peeling back of the label element is a representation of this; uncovering the truth. behind the label is a number of eyes continuously watching/judging you for who you are and the word 'emancipation' is disappearing as you continue to peel away at the label; a representation of freedom. When you read a book, you want the front cover to have just as much impact as the words within, so when you close the book you want to be reminded of everything the book represents for a continual experience. Therefore, creating the label out of removable vinyl allows you to reseal it, becoming a metaphor for puling the wool over your eyes and/or not focusing on the most important information, the truth and just judging what you see or hear.
