The Book Thief: Book Cover Re-Design
Markus Zusak's literary masterpiece, "The Book Thief" is set against the backdrop of World War II, explores the power of words and storytelling.
In this project, I attempt at remagining the book cover, working on a blend of both analog and digital mediums through multiple iterations. I aimed to make the narrative more approachable to young readers by infusing a fresh visual appeal into the cover design.
In addition to this, I also created a few posters inspired by scenes from the book, adding an extra layer of visual storytelling to the project.
Five weeks, February 2022
Illustrations,
Academic Project, mentored by Aarti Oberoi
Final Re-imagined Book Cover
Mindmap of key themes discussed in the book thief
I started this project by trying to understand all the key factors in the book, the essence, and its approach. World War 2 is a sizable topic to write about, I wanted to talk about things that were striking in this book. The book often explores themes such as death, duality, mortality, and the power of words through the use of irony and beautifully juxtaposes kindness and cruelty, drawing more attention to both.
I wanted to attempt and bring out this contrast and tried different mediums and materials to project it on the cover.
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Use of threads, clay and paint on paper
Other material including leaves and paper
I attempted to work on another book cover design where I worked exclusively on type, the idea is for the type to project that "the book thief" is a nine-year-old child and for the cover to be more appealing for a young adult generation
Another iteration for the book design
Hardcover Book Mockup 1
Hardcover Book Mockup 2
In addition to the book cover, I also designed three posters inspired by key elements of the book, the idea here was to represent three different scenes that evoke three drastic variety of emotions and through which I wanted to convey how the book covers a lot of heartache and heartwarming moments together.
The first poster talks about a scene where two young kids are apple picking, the second talks about a book-burning event, and the third talks about the price of bread being blood, these scenes are all bound together beautifully through the color red and its changing meaning.
Final Posters
Poster on wall-1
Posters on wall-2
Posters on wall-3
