This is a Design Concept Study as a creative exercise. We wanted to create a series of book covers with a connecting theme between unrelated books. We wanted these unrelated books to function individually as a book product. However, by putting the three covers together, a greater meaning is divulged from the arrangement. The purpose of this design exercise was to create a greater meaning through the arrangement of three unrelated books. We believe that this exercise contains a potential strategy that could be used to not only arrange books thematically to assert a greater point, but also function as a book cover meant to sell books.
Selecting the Books
The books we chose were Suki Kim's memoir "Without You, There Is No Us," Sun Tzu's "The Art of War," and George Orwell's "Animal Farm." We chose these books in particular, for their relationship with a particular totalitarian dictator.
I chose Suki Kim's "Without You, There is No Us." It is a memoir of her experience in North Korea as an english teacher for the sons of the Nation's elite. She recorded her writings in secret and wrote her memoir into a novel after leaving North Korea following the dictator's Kim Jong Il's death.
Animal Farm was the most natural idea as the book written by George Orwell illustrates an allegorical account of the Bolshevik Revolution, Josef Stalin's rise to Power, and the historical dialectics of a socialist revolution co-opted by an authoritarian totalitarian government.
Animal Farm was the most natural idea as the book written by George Orwell illustrates an allegorical account of the Bolshevik Revolution, Josef Stalin's rise to Power, and the historical dialectics of a socialist revolution co-opted by an authoritarian totalitarian government.
The connection between Sun Tzu's "Art of War" with communist dictator Mao Ze Dong on the cover was Mao's attribution of his conflicts and political dominance to the ancient book on war.
Designing the Covers
We wanted the covers themselves to have the exact typographic structure of the dust jacket, while removing the dictators face. The flat black cover becomes an ominous void that speaks to the darker themes and themes discussed in this collection of books. The dust jackets feature the dictators faces looking out on the covers, ever watching. The type treatment is like a whisper into these dictator's ears.
The inside spread of the books contain the same image of the dictator, however, the title is now covering and censoring these figures that invade public space from the outside.
We thought about the physicality of the book's outer cover and inner content as a line between public and private space. The public space is presented outwards, but the inner private space of the book's content is reserved for the reader. The contents of the book, becoming a haven from the pervasive eyes of these totalitarian dictators.
The inside spread of the books contain the same image of the dictator, however, the title is now covering and censoring these figures that invade public space from the outside.
We thought about the physicality of the book's outer cover and inner content as a line between public and private space. The public space is presented outwards, but the inner private space of the book's content is reserved for the reader. The contents of the book, becoming a haven from the pervasive eyes of these totalitarian dictators.
