We were assigned to design a book cover for a movie. We had been encouraged to employ the use of visual metaphors as a solution, so I began to create as many as I could. These metaphors conveyed a host of different themes and ideas from the movie.The answer was to find the most important theme from the movie and go with the idea that most concisely conveyed it.

The solution needed to be as simple and effortless the movie. More importantly, it had to be fun. Back to the Future is more comedy than cliffhanger, and the solution had to reflect that. I made the connection between the clock and a race track, and the rest is history. It had to seem effortless, immediate, and most importantly, High School. My goal was to create a cover that Marty could have drawn during math class, and I believe incorporating the crumpled notebook paper texture to be successful to this end.

The final cover was drawn by me, with a ballpoint pen, on notebook paper. Compositionally, even the action of the car was carefully considered. There is a haphazardness about the movie that couldn’t be captured by a car simply winning the race. There had to be an element of uncertainty and a sense that the situation could become out of control at any moment.