Software used:
Software used:
Branding & Identity:
Branding & Identity:
Lord of the Flies:
This brief was wanting the outcome of a book cover for Lord of the Flies, illustrating a key topic from the story. The hypothetical client for this project were Penguin Random House, and the outcomes needed to be designed in an eye-catching and interesting way that would appeal to a target audience of young readers.
I began by reading the story, picking out some of the key themes throughout and identifying the messages that are apparent within the story. After identifying the key themes of chaos, isolation and identity, I worked to visualise these in moodboard-form.
From this moodboard then stemmed initial ideas, sketched as thumbnails (see below). These ideas each visualised either chaos, isolation or identity, while taking aspects of the island that the story took place on.
After considering more into ways that I could visually communicate one of these key themes, I looked into with typography and thought about how it could play a more significant part in my design, other than just function - such as just to display the name of the book, the author, etc.
I decided that I wanted the typography to be a prominent element within my design, and so I experimented with creating some hand-drawn typography in a messy style to represent the theme of chaos. I used ink and a pipette, allowing me to create uncontrolled letterforms. As well as chaos, this technique also helped to represent the isolation of the island; no technology or outside influence, with a lack of rules and guidelines.
I refined these letterforms digitally and utilised them within my final cover designs alongside the other primary visuals (see below).
These are my three final covers, each utilising the same visuals; the illustrated letterforms combined with a lino-printed leaf, digitally adapted for each cover using Adobe Photoshop. Each cover consists of inside flaps (front & back), a back cover, spine and front cover.
The first cover reflects the theme of social isolation, and how the boys each turn savage and 'bad', one by one. On the front of the cover is the lino-printed leaf, repeated to show the group of boys. One leaf is red, representing the first boy of the group to turn 'bad'. On the back cover, all of the leaves are red to show how the group of boys all became savage, apart from one - the last boy who remained good at the end of the story.
The second cover also visualises the theme of isolation, but more so in a physical sense. Showing the same lino-printed leaf as an outline in the centre of a clear, white cover, visualising the island and its isolation from the rest of the world.
The final cover visualises the island, utilising the lino-printed leaf with the hand-drawn typography. Within this lino-printed leaf, I kept the thick, inky texture to it, allowing me to represent the island's wild, chaotic environment. This chaotic theme is also conveyed through the dark background colour of the cover.
To further visualise my designs in a more realistic way, I applied each book cover to a mockup in Adobe Photoshop, showing the front cover and the spine. This mockup also had a rough texture on the cover, maybe of cartridge paper or fabric, which could work to convey the rough, wild aspect of the island.
I thoroughly enjoyed this project as it gave me the opportunity to introduce hand-crafted elements into my digital designs and utilise the two alongside eachother.
