Poetry Book Jacket Series Typographic Design
Create a series of four typographic book jackets, branding the books in a cohesive set.
Client: Random House
Project Length: 7 weeks
Student Project
Books Included:
Life on Mars by Tracy K. Smith
I Was the Jukebox by Sandra Beasley
Unearthings by Wendy Chen
Bright Dead Things by Ada Limon
All four books highlight the theme of growth through life experiences and self-reflection through memories. The book jacket designs will be inspired by heavily textured fabric; potential patterns could be made by any small repeating shapes to give the illusion of texture. The texture motif is use to represent memories and the multicolored ‘threads’ are used to represent the interaction of different lives.
As a merchandise item to promote the books, I created a simple illustration intended to be printed on canvas tote bags. The texture of the bag will highlight the memory through texture theme throughout the book cover designs. The illustration incorporates the patterns of three of the book jacket designs.
Process: After I chose the theme of texture, the challenge was to apply that concept to all four books. The main color for each book was a key part of this as well as the interactions between the cover typography and the patterns.
