Classic Book Covers

categories:

Layout Design, Illustration & Hand-lettering

Brief: 

For this project, I re-designed the covers and created a “series” out of three classic books that are not related. This was a personal project and challenge I wanted to give myself. I love reading and that was always a big part of my life growing up (and is still today), so I wanted to redesign the covers of some childhood classics. I chose three books to connect through their cover designs. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, To Kill A Mockingbird, and Anne of Green Gables all feature a spunky protagonist and have a lot of valuable life lessons.

Process: 

One of the big challenges for this project was to create contemporary covers for old books. To keep it modern, I hand-lettered the titles in a playful style, and paired that with a classic typeface to capitalize on the age of the books. I sketched (a lot) trying to figure out the best lettering style to utilize and ultimately decided on a simplified sans-serif style. To unify the book covers, I drew each of the main characters portraits and created a cohesive visual to unify the books while keeping their individuality. I chose a color palette based on the dichotomy of mixing new and old—bright, saturated colors to bring in a modern and playful element, and a deep muted green to keep them classic. In the end, the balance of old and new came together and resulted in this solution, which won Best in Show at Illinois Central College’s 2019 Graphic Design Show.