Penguin Book Awards Brief: Design a striking cover that is well executed, has an imaginative concept and clearly places the book for its market. While all elements of the jacket need to work together as a cohesive whole, remember that the front cover must be effective on its own and be eye-catching within a crowded bookshop setting.
For my book cover, I chose the colour palette of old Russian Art and subtle rays to link to the Communist symbols featured in the book, Animal Farm. The main illustration is of a hand with a pig’s hoof morphing into the index and middle fingers - this visual image would become known to the viewer once they’ve read the book to under the metaphor and other visual themes that run throughout the book.
My alternative book cover has a more subtle link to the Russian theme linked to the book, by using a Russian font to type the words Animal Farm repeatedly as a background. This is used to test the viewer and provoke thoughts about what the plot is really about and its running themes and motifs.