This was done for an assignment for a graphic design program in Media Arts Fundamentals. The assignment was to redesign a cover of a non-fiction book for a target audience and make it a visual metaphor. My target audience was parents of young child/children. After looking on amazon for a book, I found Simone Davies’s The Montessori Toddler: A Parent’s Guide To Raising A Curious And Responsible Human Being.  At first, I took interest in this book because I did not know what Montessori learning/play was before. I googled it, and I was even more interested in this book cover. Since the objective was to create a visual metaphor, I knew that I had so many possibilities if I chose to explore this topic. 

After I was done researching Montessori learning, I found the words growth, creativity, and exploration came up a lot, so those are the words I chose to explore. 

My first drafts included a green tree with binoculars placed in front of it, covering growth and exploration. I then added a colorful pinwheel behind the tree to add color and show creativity. I had a peach background and bold text for the titles. After some tweaks and critiques, I was able to minimize my design and made the text more playful. 

I lighted up the peach background and found a Handwritten style font. For the smaller text, I decided to add a curve to it and keep the framing yellow lines that are on the original cover.

For the colors, I got rid of the pinwheel and simply found an image of a colored tree to combine both ideas ( creativity and growth ). I feel that it made the cover less busy but still demonstrates both ideas. Unfortunately, the binoculars no longer fit the theme, so they had to go. Finally, I added the clouds to add more detail to the cover!