Book Cover Design and Intaglio Printmaking
In this unit, students learn the art of cover design by researching existing cover designs for some of their favorite books, designing their own, and producing these book covers through intaglio printing. Students grapple with stylistic and content-based choices, considering the importance of plot, symbolism, and/or imagery and their impact on composition and typography. Featured are some of my students’ hard work from Art and Literature class and their accompanying explanations.
The Metamorphosis, designed by J. S.
Atonement, by S. C.
Over and Yonder, by D.J.
Romeo and Juliet, by J. Y.
It, by V. C.
My book cover for I’ll Give You the Sun was inspired by the many binaries and reversals present in the story as well as life, almost like tarot cards. There are many comparisons of light and dark, which are very important symbols that appear throughout the novel. The yellow by itself would not look as cheerful; the black by itself would simply look dark (excuse the pun). But together, they create something new. However, life is not a straight line, nor is it symmetrical or perfect, which I demonstrated through the shapes of the letters. They are not straight or aligned, but still fitting together just the same. --- By R. S.
The Art of War by Sun Tzu illustrates the different methodologies in war. One is about not wasting weapons and resources and instead, minimizing the waste produced from battle. Taking this, I used a single sword, leftover from battle, as a focal point of the cover. Other The Art of War covers also incorporated the color red, so I also carried on that motif. Although minimizing damage from war is emphasized in the book, other quotes from it talk about the enemy often as well. Using this, I drew two enemy soldiers at the bottom, hiding beneath dark bushes, which are angular to keep the serious appeal of the book. Moreover, the land they are looking at has hatching on it. Besides just adding it for shading, it also acted as a warning to not enter that dangerous territory in wartimes. --- By K. K.
My design was inspired by the overwhelming and engrossing visuals of both the book and the movie, The Woman in the Dunes. The imagery of the sand is terrifying as it is captivating, and I wanted to capture the sense of helplessness and touch of mystery from the book. I superimposed the layers of sand with the grooves in our fingertips to create this confusing and, according to many people that I have shown the cover to, sensual aura. I wanted to draw people into the void that the fist (which people can see as a body) is gripping onto. In the fist is the kanji for woman, which references the subjugation of the woman in the book. The void also represents the empty struggle of life that Kobo Abe describes in the book. I decided to make the cover a simple black and white as both an aesthetic and thematic choice. It creates the sharpest contrast and the lack of color, at the same time, feels lifeless and dull. --- By J. O.
For my book of choice, I decided to illustrate The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid because of the complexity of its main protagonist, Evelyn Hugo, as well as the intricacy of her storyline as the novel progresses. Two hands are seen in my cover: one belonging to, presumably, Evelyn Hugo who is wearing her engagement rings from her seven marriages, and the second proposing an eighth ring that is more opulent than the others. Instead of a simple band, the eighth ring integrates a large diamond, which is figurative of an improvement from the remaining seven rings. This creates a sense of unfamiliarity because from the title, we only know of seven husbands. Therefore, my artwork aims to intrigue readers into reading on and discovering whose hand might be the second one on the cover. --- By C. W.