The chance to do a book cover for Stephen Hawking's A Brief History Of Time was a great opportunity.
My initial sketches and ideas lacked personality and were typical scientific illustrations seen in old text books and it was surprising how easy it is to fall into the trap of clichés and coming up with what you might think someone imagines a science based book would look like.
After a group crit and tutor lecturer advice, a more figurative image seemed to communicate better for the audience the brief wanted to appeal to. My first attempt was a good idea but wasn't executed well enough technically. The colours were too bland and the retro, screen print, 1960s feel I wanted wasn't relevant to the audience I needed to reach.
I used the brief to use Illustrator more and try create a figure using vectors based on my drawings. I was happy with the outcome but feel the focus was entirely on the figure without much thought given to the type and rest of the cover as a whole. It was striking yet perhaps too bare. Again I had technical problems with the file size and the whole process was time consuming.
I didn't want to restrict myself too much with digital drawing and use digital collage which was refreshing. It allowed for a more emotional and universal image that captures imagination about some of the profound subjects in the book without being too alienating to non science audiences.
I was inspired by the sci-fi film Interstella(2014) to start taking a serious interest in science and took inspiration from the use of corn fields seen in the film, people who are intrigued by the deeper philosophical meanings of astrology often have their interest sparked by film and popular culture.
This collage is by far the most successful in communicating a story and emotional response with the kind of audience Penguin wanted to capture. The design also fills the space well and the colours are warm and inviting in order to not put people off who may feel science is a cold and emotionless subject.
I've been trying to use drawing more this year and almost tried to forget about collage. Using collage again made me realise how much I love it and how I need to continue pushing collage just as much as the drawing. Collage allowed me to create a powerful composition that captures imagination, using the focal point couple to hint at a story. I'm also pleased with the small details that give added depth to the story such as the fragments breaking away from the couple which really works well in showing time as a physical form, visibly eroding the couple.
I didn't get to submit this design in time which is a shame but after the death of Hawking was announced I felt compelled to come back to the brief and make something worthy as a tribute to him and feel it was from the heart.
