Jane Eyre Book Covers

•

For a design project I created three different book covers for Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. Each book cover was created to implement a different style. The first if typography, the second homemade materials, and the third photoshop. After multiple weeks researching and experimenting, I finally have three covers that I like.

Typography

When I first started working on the typography book cover, I knew I wanted to do something including a bird or a tree because those are both images used in Jane Eyre. My first drafts weren't great though, they looked more like a children's book cover rather than a cover for a classic novel. That's why getting feedback is so important. I was given the advice to focus more on the typography than creating a picture and perhaps adding a simple silhouette in. Because of the advice I was given, I was able to create this cover.

Homemade Materials

Making a book cover using handmade materials was by far the hardest of the three covers for me. I would make a small design and decide I didn't like it. I even though about trying to crochet something. I'm glad I realized before I started that that one wouldn't work. As I was reading Jane Eyre, I came upon the scene where Jane draws herself focusing on her worst qualities, titling it "A Governess." I realized I could draw Jane, though probably not as harshly as she drew herself. The drawing alone didn't quite work though. Later in the book I read about the chestnut tree that split after being struck by lightning. I decided to paint it, but that alone didn't resonate with me either. But I had the faintest idea of combining the two. So, I scanned the drawing and painted over a copy using two colors to show the conflicts that Jane goes through as she is falling for Mr. Rochester. I only hope that my efforts do well enough to show that.

Photoshop

This book cover is easily the most eye-catching of the three that I made. Fire has a way of doing that. This cover pulls from two different scenes in the book. One where Jane is about to marry Mr. Rochester but doesn't because she learns that he's already married, and another where Mr. Rochester's wife attempts to burn down Rochester manor. The use of fire is seen a couple times in the book, but that one stood out to me the most. Getting the couple of different fire images that I used to mesh well together was rather challenging to me, they were just barely different hues than each other, and if I adjusted one it seemed the other didn't match anymore. After a while though, I was able to adjust them well enough that they blended into each other, giving me the final book cover here.