Graphic Designer
King Lear Book Jacket
King Lear by William Shakespeare
King Lear is one of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies highlighting the theme of fighting for power, insincerity, and foolishness. I've always loved Shakespeare's work and I recently got a chance to read King Lear for a course called British Literature. For my book jacket design project, I was allowed to choose any book to design for and I took this opportunity to choose the work I'm most familiar with and enjoy reading.
Ideation
I decided that making my book cover look like a playing card would best illustrate the theme of the book. Playing card represents decision-making ( in this case, King Lear's decision) and if you choose the wrong card, you may find yourself in a difficult position. The crown has three spikes representing King Lear's three daughters. The crown is broken because two of the daughters start fighting for power and completely neglect the other. As many of us know, Shakespeare's play always ends up with deaths which is why on the back cover, the crown continues to break.
We were also required to design a pattern for the other side of the book jacket. I wanted to continue the playing cards reference but designed the different icons to fit the concept of the book. Most importantly, we were required to design our own title font.
