VARSITY PROJECT
The Brief:
Redesign the book jackets for a series of book. I chose six titles by William Shakespeare that would be sold as a box set. The objective of the brief was to try capture the mood of the author’s writing and the genre, not just per individual novel, but also collectively.
The Creative Approach:
Seeing as a lot of Shakespeare’s books are read at school, the aim of this campaign was to try get the youth more excited about the series of books by giving them a contemporary makeover. Real life situation were depicted by means of photography, and further ambient emotion was added through design techniques.
Influencing the execution of selected book covers was the insight that within each of Shakespeare’s books, more often than not, the story unfolds due to the characters misinterpretation of a situation. For example; Othello believed his lovely Desdemona was being unfaithful with his right hand man, even though these ideas were being planted in Othello’s mind. Thus, the cover shows Desdemona and Cassio seemingly kissing behind a window, but when the book is turned over it becomes clear that the scenario is in fact quite innocent; Cassio leaning on his sword waiting for Othello to return, and Desdemona hanging up a piece of cloth.
