Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami is a book, heavy with symbolism, intimate and atmospheric chapters. Penguin decided to make it their Adult Fiction book for the Student Design Award and I wanted to enter the competition. After reading the book, a lot of concepts came and fell through. I wanted to capture how the book felt and capture exactly what makes it so good, while being interpretive to any and all new readers.
Three concepts made it to the end, with the first below being the one I'll submit...
The first cover has hidden meanings and messages that some would understand if they read the book. Within the diamond is a circle, a rising sun, made from mixed-width lines to represent the discourse, Toru (the main character) feels about Japanese society as we read further on. Whereas, the diamond itself portrays the female anatomy, made with symmetry in mind. The colour palette compliments the themes of sex and relationships too as I wanted to replicated that emotional aspect from the book.
Symbolised by the communication between Toru and Naoko. The letters between the two, helped influenced what happened towards the end. Parts are overlapped and faded to represent the longevity of their relationship as the book goes on. For that reason, it bleeds onto the back.
The last and final cover is a more dark, emphatic look at Toru towards the end, as he becomes isolated and lonely. In a particular scene, he's talking to a fisherman he meets and at that point, I imagined he'd see a sunset. The contrasting black and white helped the sun, visually be as bright as possible despite it's minimalism.
Thanks for looking! Show some appreciation and email, if you'd like to get in touch. E: jaheedhussain22@gmail.com
