Penguin Design Award entry

This is my final design of 'Perfume' book cover for Penguin Design Award 2010. Full jacket:

Just front cover:

Photos of the model:

And this is my explanation of the concept:

My concept is based on creating mixed feelings. The title lettering looks nice at first sight but after taking a closer look the reader can see it is made of hair. Beautiful, long and nicely scented hair is undoubtedly a feature of a woman. If it is cut, it immediately brings the thought that something bad has happened to her. By using real hair I wanted to emphasise the human aspect in a subtle way and it links to the story, the pursuit of the perfect scent - innocence. The lettering style is inspired by eighteenth-century French alphabets.

Go to my previous post to see the development & tests: http://patrycjazywert.blogspot.com/2010/05/perfume-book-cover-development.html.

'Perfume' book cover: development

Last week I submitted my entry for Penguin Design Award. The brief was to design a new cover for "Perfume" by Patrick Süskind. The project was a part of uni assignments, so I had a lot of time to test and experiment with different concepts for the cover.

My initial idea was to focus on the concept of smell and try to express it typographically, adding a subtle image of a woman's body. This is my first sketch and a rough visual:

Then, after talking to my tutors I decided to use typography as main element, but make it more experimental. I used meat to highlight the dark and murder side of the story. I wanted the lettering to look nice at first sight, but then after inspection the viewer can see it's made of meat. These are my two tests of meat calligraphy (front & spine):

Cutting pork loin and bacon to create letters felt a bit weird...

Next stage was etching tests, to see results go to my previous post: http://patrycjazywert.blogspot.com/2010/04/etching.html.

Then, I decided to use hair as a theme for the cover. This is first sketch:

Then I thought I could use real hair. So, I had fun times putting my head on a scanner and trying to reach the keyboard :) This is my real hair version:

I'll publish the final entry for Penguin competition in my next post.