Book Jacket

Task:

To redesign a classic book cover utilizing a graphic design trend.

Program(s):

InDesign and Illustrator

Details:

Beowulf was one of my favorite classic reads when I was in high school. However, I have not so fond memories of the book jacket due to the historically inaccurate armor featured on the front. This combination made me extremely enthusiastic about working on a redesign.

At the time, 2-D, flat design was trending. I chose to stick with one color and utilized only line weight and negative space to formulate the image on the front. I used Illustrator to do this. As an avid reader, I often struggle with the character on the cover not fitting the image in my head. I wanted to leave the image of the hero up to interpretation. Additionally, I wanted to capture one of the most epic moments of the storyline, so that people can judge a book by its cover.

I chose to keep my font choices simple and readable. I did this so that when an individual picks up the book they can quickly scan to take in all of the important information such as author name, review, and synopsis. I chose a decorative font for the title to highlight it as the most important, stand out element. I purposefully chose a font that reflected the time period of the story more accurately.