Book cover submission for the Penguin Design Award 2016.
In A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess presents a discussion on free will and moral choice:
“Goodness is something chosen. When a man cannot choose he ceases to be a man... Is it better for a man to have chosen evil than to have good imposed upon him?”
This discussion, central to the plot and themes of the book, provided the inspiration for this cover design. The under cover is divided into two halves - the top half highlights the brainwashing/imposed goodness side of this discussion, whilst the bottom half is deliberately provocative and sexualised.
The reader is presented with a choice; either to ‘censor’ the lower half using the slip cover provided, or to leave it exposed, risking causing offence when reading the book in public. It is intended that most would feel forced to censor the lower cover out of an embarrassed sense of social obligation, thereby reinforcing the book’s central discussion.
