The idea behind this assignment was to create a book cover from a list of banned books. A large part of this assignment was to focus on integrating the typography with the illustrations in an interesting and effective way. The book I chose was Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys, which tells the story of Berth from Jane Eyre.

To begin the process, I started by researching the book and creating many thumbnails with ideas of how I could translate the theme of the book into the cover. The idea that I landed on was to show the sea as the hair of the main character and have the type integrated throughout it. While this was good in theory, it was a struggle to illustrate. To create the sea of hair I I create many lines and utilized the width tool and created different widths throughout a single strand so that all of the pieces together created a pattern similar to the idea of waves. I did the same concept for the background but kept it in a lighter gradient. While this took a long time to produce, my main struggle was the color palette. I tried many different combinations of blues and purples, but eventually I settled on a teal palette. I utilized a gradient for the strands of hair to add interest. For the type treatment, I utilized a serifed font that contrasted with the illustration but also was similar with the thick and thin strokes. My final element was integrating the type with the hair but allowing the hair to flow in and out of the letters.

Overall, this product was a success. It clearly illustrated the concept I was trying to convey in connection to the book and I even won an award for it at my school.