Conceptual Book Cover
This project is for ART 235 (Graphic Design) at BYU-Idaho. My assignment was to design 3 book covers for the book, "Of Mice and Men," by John Steinbeck. The covers convey the intent of the author, and use creative design strategies.
Typographic:
This solution uses the Neue Haas Grotesk font. The idea is that the words make the maze. In the book, there is no reward for mice or men, but an endless amount of work to be done while pursuing a reward. It is the author's intent to show us how the best laid plans of mice and men are wasted.
The creative solution in this image is using physical shape similarities to change one thing to another.
Homemade:
This cover was handmade. I used a photo of my husband to show remorse and sadness. It could be Lennie or George, they both have reason for regret. It is juxtaposed against the image of the crazy rabbit. The rabbit was made out of wool and scanned into the computer. He is meant to look crazy and possibly dead. He represents the lost dream of Lennie and George. He could represent Lennie or Curley's wife.
The creative solution is juxtaposition, but also there is isolation with the rabbit's nose. This brings your eye to the crazy rabbit.
Designer's Choice
This cover represents the comparison between Curley's wife and Lennie's dream of owning rabbits. Lennie kills every animal he pets. He loves them too hard and ends up breaking their little fragile necks... every time. He only wants to pet soft things, but when he looses control with Curley's wife, he looses his dream of owning rabbits.
This image was made using combination.
In conclusion, these conceptual book covers work because they show the intent of the author. That intention was to show us how the best laid plans of mice and men can be foiled. In this case, it was foiled by a woman, and Lennie's incontrollable urge to pet soft things while not understanding how strong he was and how fragile they were. They were designed with creative strategies.
