COVER DESIGN
A reimagining of the infamous Othello by William Shakespeare. Pulling out themes of broken identity, mistrust, and race, I knew this cover needed to have a clear subject and a clear interruption of his image. Photographed with hand painted type on a mirror, there is a violence to the final image that connect to much of Othello’s narrative.
PROCESS
The key themes of Othello are somewhat divisive. While many focus on race, I wanted to pull out out themes of identity, losing the sense of yourself as Othello does under the manipulation of Iago. With the type, I had to decide if I wanted something representative of the time period of Shakespeare writing, or something more modern and humanist, really paying attention to the power of perfect humanist O. Ultimately I went for serif fonts that were in the middle. I wanted shapes that were slightly more modern than old scripture inspired typefaces but shared the sharp serifs that carried the violence theme. In sketches, I was trying to see how the composition could spread over the two covers, experimenting with the simple composition of the text and its visual treatment.
I initially explored less subject-focused and photographic approaches, understanding how themes of division and violence could be expressed.
The shattered mirror became the most important expression of the theme and it was the perfection of this photograph that I carried into the final design.