Text and Image-Based Book Covers
I designed two distinctive book covers for Oryx and Crake, experimenting with different approaches to visually convey the novel’s themes. My goal was to move beyond literal interpretations, embracing a more sophisticated and creative design process.
I developed one type-based cover and one image-based cover, each aimed at capturing the story’s essence in a striking and original way. Throughout the project, I focused on balancing creativity with market appeal, ensuring the designs would engage both new readers and those already familiar with the book. The goal was to create covers that stand out in a competitive market, offering a fresh and compelling visual interpretation that resonates with a wide audience.
In the novel, the character of Crake creates a new race of genetically engineered humans called Crakers. His plan is to eliminate all the old humans to make way for the Crakers, who he considered to be the far superior beings.
Crake’s green eye mirrors that of his Crakers, bringing into question what makes someone truly worthy of their place in humanity. I illustrated the destructive nature of Crake’s transgenic experiments and subsequent mass genocide with a DNA strand breaking apart within the pupil. This image mimics a meteoroid strike destined to kickstart a new phase on Earth.
The imbalance between nature and technology is one of the most prominent themes in Oryx and Crake. After the apocalypse, all of humanity’s technology is laid to waste, destined to be reclaimed by the forces of nature that had long been suppressed.
I took photos of various natural and artificial textures and spliced them together to illustrate the lack of clear distinction between them. We are so accustomed to being surrounded by materials of our own creation that it is difficult to grasp the idea of a world without them.