Project Brief
The assignment was to create a figurative dust jacket/book cover for a novel or short story, I chose The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. The short story is about a traveling sales man named Gregor Samsa who wakes up one day to see that he has begun to transform into a creature (although the book doesn’t explicitly say ‘cockroach’ that’s the creature assigned to Gregor by most readers.) His life proceeds to deteriorate until he loses his job, family and eventually his humanity.
My goal with this project was to create a cover that did not explicitly show a cockroach or a depiction on Gregor in a literal way. As I was doing research I found that Kafka had specifically requested that the cover to his story not show the transformed Gregor to keep his image mysterious to the reader. As mentioned no where is Gregor actually referred to as a roach just a “creature” or “vermin” depending on the translation, so I wanted to keep that same energy of intrigue when creating my jackets.
Mind Map
Mood Boards
I created two boards which reflected what types of media The Metamorphosis shows up in and how they depict the story, as well as any elements that would work well in my future compositions like color, imagery and feeling, I wanted the viewer to feel a mood of dread, sadness, intrigue and hopelessness.
Sketches
First Drafts
From the sketches I chose these three to concentrate on, while still attempting to stay away from sepia tones and explicit depictions on cockroaches (though one does have a hint of a bug creature). I wanted, instead, to concentrate on the idea of the transformation itself, instead of exactly what the character turns into. Which is why I used a rotting apple and a shifting sky. The apple is a symbol of Gregory’s deteriorating state when it gets lodged in his back by his father and his vision does shift from color to murky gray during his transformation.
2nd Drafts
From the three I narrowed it down further to two, one a photomontage and the other illustration focused. For both I wanted a sense of dread and ambiguity to be apparent in my compositions. For the purple illustration I took out the two separate beams of light on the front and back, then instead I made it one continuous beam of light from one side of the jacket going into the other, creating a more dramatic scene. For the sky comp I adjusted where everything sat and created a bug shape out of the clouds in order to hint at what’s to come without being obvious.
3rd Drafts
For my next round of drafts I added text and drop caps to the bio and summaries to fill out the flaps. I also used some pull quote for the back covers since they were looking bare.
Final Draft
For my final compositions I adjusted to coloring of some of my publishing logos as well as placing them in the best positions so they can be better distinguished from the background. For the illustrated cover I changed to position of the bar code so that it would interfere as little as possible with the composition. I also flipped the spine so that it was facing the proper direction for American book readers.
Mock-ups
Conclusion
Although I did somewhat end up depicting a creature in my illustrated cover, it feel like the fact that it is covered with a sheet is enough to keep the sense of intrigue I was going for. The fact that the illustrated composition has the grays and the sickly purple also give off the feeling of sickness, sadness, and melancholy along with the mystery. I feel that there is a sense of dread when looking at the covered figure because you ‘know’ what’s underneath the sheet but actually taking it off of the creature and looking seems dreadful.
The sky composition came out exceedingly well; the fade into opaque gray sky seems smooth, gradual and appropriately ominous. The transforming title type adds a pop of color and context to the darkened side of the book, and the little bug in the cloud is a nice subtle surprise for the reader who may not even notice it right way. I feel that both of these results are successful in that they are visually appealing, mysterious and intriguing.
