Book Redesign

Graphic Design/Book Design
Project Overview
My last semester at VCU, I was tasked with redesigning a horror book cover of my choice. As part of my project, I had to illustrate an appropriate cover that would accurately reflect the contents of the book. The final product had to look professional, with the title, authors name, and publisher clearly visible on the front cover.
Background
"Tender is the Flesh portrays a society in which a virus has contaminated all animal meat. Because of the lack of animal flesh, cannibalism becomes legal. Marcos, a human meat supplier, is conflicted by this new society, and tortured by his own personal losses" (wikipedia). This novel explores topics of grief, power, and the limits of society’s morals, and how society, and the individuals inside it, acclimate themselves into acts of savagery, and their brutal new world.

Research and Ideate

When redesigning a book cover, I always find it crucial to fully understand the contents of the book to understand the meaning of it and represent it appropriately in my design. I believe that trying to redesign a book cover solely based off of a short summary found online would not do the book its proper justice, and leaves room for error and missed opportunities to encapsulate its true and full context. So, after I had read the book I had chosen to redesign, I sketched out a handful of thumbnails before finally narrowing it down to these three.

Iterations

I settled on one of the above sketches for its strong symbolic meaning, which is still intriguing out of context, and alludes to the contents of the book without being too graphic. I illustrated the secondary character curled up in the fetal position to show her vulnerability as the literal "piece of meat" they prey upon and consume. The fetal position was also symbolic of the themes of pregnancy and fertility in the book. I knew I wanted a limited color palette of red, white, and pink, but ended up essentially inverting the background and text colors in my 2nd iteration after class critique. I exaggerated the skin tones to be a fleshy pink, resembling raw chicken meat. Her skin tone, coupled with her fetal position, look like an uncooked chicken wing when you squint your eyes; another nod to her role in the book.

Final

After a final critique, I rendered some blood into the background to imitate the red liquids found in packaged meat sold in the grocery store, since I had the crinkled plastic background texture already. I believe this addition elevated the piece further and more appropriately fits the theme of horror than it would without it.

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