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Book Cover Redesign
Is it possible to visualize an author’s vision with contemporary values?

Objective

Design a series of 3 book covers, to represent a reissue from a publisher. Each selected title should be different enough from each other to give individuality to the books. Reflect the essence of the contents, giving the reader a hint. The design needs to have some grounding elements to tie everything together.

I picked three Chinese modern writers and worked on the cover of their English translation works. All three of them have influential works of literature in China, and this book series promotes their work to the Western world.

Solution

I decided to focus on type and color to depict the condition and emotion of those people in the books. Because the authors were using words to describe what they are trying to convey, it was important to keep it simple and interpretive to present the essence of the books well.

Chinese and English languages have very different writing systems. As I tried to find a way to merge these two cultural presentations together, I came up with the idea of having some of them in a vertical direction, as that was how Chinese was read during that period in the books.