Gillian Flynn Book Covers
Illustration
Art Direction: Jason Kernevich & Scott Laserow
Overview
The objective of this project was to create a series of three illustrated book covers that would interest a new and younger audience. I was assigned three popular books by Gillian Flynn – Gone Girl, Sharp Objects and Dark places. This project gave the unique challenge of needing three different pieces to tell individual stories while also working together as one larger piece.
Approach
After a few rounds of sketching, I decided to take objects pertinent to specific parts of the stories and illustrate those on the cover. This created a reveal interaction between the book and the reader – as they read they would understand why the specific objects were on the covers while they read. I felt that creating this initial mystery was a great way to not only get a reader’s attention but to also represent the genre of the books. The choice of darker color palettes and obstructed type were used to visually represent the “darkness” of the stories and the conflict that the characters faced. I chose to use a slightly more playful typeface for the titles because I felt that it would relate more to a younger audience who might be put off by something that felt too serious.
Research and sketching
Research was vital to this project considering that I only had previous knowledge of the book Gone Girl as well as its film adaptation. Reading plot summaries and theme analysis was important for understanding the respective stories and creating informed design decisions. Along with book-specific research I collected visual research on both illustrations and book covers that I found interesting and relevant to this project. This helped me to develop an idea of where I wanted to go with these covers and move forward with sketching.
