Here We Go Again: Yet Another Les Miserables Book Cover
This time around my project centered around creating three different book covers for one classic, timeless book. I chose to work with Les Miserables, because I love Victor Hugo's writing and because I've watched the musical many times, both the old and new version. I'm a huge fan of musicals, but I knew that when I approached this project I would have to recall the details from the book that I've only read once. I had to get a quick refresher from SparkNotes to get the creative juices flowing.
The creative process for this project started with visual research, a mind map, and sketches. I wanted to stick to one theme or idea to start and work around that. I knew for sure that I wanted to use red, white, and blue for the French flag on the covers since it does take place in France, but also a French revolution takes place in it. This book is filled with commentary on the struggle of the oppressed, but also the driving plot centered around Jean Valjean his path of redemption is heavily mentioned. There was a lot to work with here and I wanted to make good use of those dynamic themes. I didn't want to do anything cliche, since that does tend to happen.
The process of getting my ideas from sketches to digital sketches was interesting because I had created a lot of physical art to work from. It's not pictured, but the physical artwork was one of the best parts of this project, it was fun. These 16 cover ideas all differed in purpose, not one of them was the same even if the image was reused. Type covers seemed to be my worst ones, but part of it is because I was stuck in the mindset of only using type instead of using type and other elements to make the cover have an effective message. Sometimes words aren't just enough, it's not like a poster where quotes can be used to heighten the connection between work and the viewer. I got a lot of feedback about this series of ideas and I didn't always agree with it, but it was helpful in helping me take a step back and figure out what I was trying to say with each cover idea.
It's hard narrowing down ideas to the best six out of sixteen, but feedback was helpful in this case. I asked myself what I meant to say with each cover and if it connected with the book or was I just sticking with it because I liked the way it looked. I was reminded that form follows function; even in the case of book covers. I wanted to use the face with face paint, but ultimately I had to sacrifice that one in favor of another one that I could say more with. My type ones, I felt, came a long way from one week to another. There was still quite a bit of reiterating that I had to do to make something I was proud of that.
The digital art cover was chains breaking with the French flag in a gradient. From the beginning I'd wanted to incorporate the French flag into at least one of the covers, since I felt the place and context of the book greatly mattered. There is a revolution present in this book, not just the French one, but also one within the characters as their roles and attitudes change. The revolution fought in this book is against social stigma, poverty, and so many injustices forced upon the characters in this book and it’s evident within some of their character changes.
The physical cover was the hardest one to finalize, which was surprising since I struggled with the type cover. Jean Valjean's transformation from a criminal to a good man was another theme I greatly emphasized, but the image without the words "criminal" and "redeemed" wasn't enough. What did the wax and matches mean? With the overlay of those words it gave the illusion that some things can fade, that some things aren't permanent.
The typography cover kept simple, but I wanted to make the “i” look like a candle on a candlestick because that it what was a turning point for Jean Valjean who is the main figure in this book. Being forgiven for stealing the candlestick got him on the path of redemption especially since he was fighting against the stigma of criminal and wanted to get past that. One of the things I had to think about when creating this final image was that I couldn't lose what the candlestick meant in the image, I couldn't have the reader what the shape was. It had to look like a candlestick.
Will I end up being the next book cover designer for Les Miserables? I'm still starting out, but I do hope to one day be able design a cover and one day walk into the store and see my own designing looking at me. If I saw one of these covers at the store while I was shopping for a new copy of Les Miserables I would buy one, not just because I designed it, but because my attention would be peaked. I'd be interested in seeing how the cover reflects the book.
