i'm going to immortalize my presentation here on my blog in addition to my transient delivery of it during class. so here's that (beware of title-caps. see, i do use them sometimes!)
Flannery O'Connor writes stories about people. She writes about decent people, flawed and naïve and trusting, but not malicious, and she also writes about malevolent psychopathic people who betray that trust in sickening, unexpected ways.
These betrayals of trust and expectation are where her work sets itself apart, and it is on that idea that I have focused my designs: people acting inhumanly. This presents an opportunity for a unique kind of symbolism, and a juxtaposition between literal textual objects and abstract but pointed and relevant associations.
Each cover contains an object representative of the perceived neutrality, if not benevolence, of the story's traitor. These objects will be iconic and recognizable to people who are familiar with the story, and allow for an a-ha moment for first time readers when they appear in the narrative. These covers also contain an animal to symbolically represent the particular inhumanity of each antagonist, a fox for the trickery of Manly Pointer, the bible salseman, a snake for the viciousness of the Misfit, the murderer, and a vulture for the scavenging of Mr. Shiftlet.
Because these animals never appear literally in the story, readers will be encouraged to consider the narratives analytically, and think more deeply about what they've read and what Flannery O'Connor is implying about human nature, nurturing a kind of careful thinking that I'm sure she intends with her writing.
The hand-rendered quality of the imagery and the gentle colors make for a quaint and appropriate cover, mimicking the tone of O'Connor's writing style without misleading the reader about the time period or the humanistic, emotional quality of the works.
These covers are polite. They do not scream. They will stand out simply because they use an unexpected combination of literal and metaphorical imagery in a way that provokes curiosity about the ebook's contents, and they have an aspect of delayed gratification in that they keep engaging the reader throughout: not just before they read, but during the reading itself, and even after they're done.
in there, i touched on the idea of working with symbolism in uncommon ways, something i was really pretty excited about. i enjoyed the process of trying to pull imagery from a text that went beyond the default "pictures of things that happened" set of instincts. that, i think, was the most potent of my experiences. the beginning of this assignment was terrifying: trying to imagine different ways to illustrate each of these stories but as a related set was difficult, but as it progressed, the more i got into it. i also got to play with watercolor, which is certainly off my beaten path of vectors and double-clicks.
hopefully our presentations go well, and as always, onward/upward!
diggin' where your covers ended up.
ReplyDelete