Dust Jacket

Description:
For my typography class, I was instructed to design a dust jacket of a book of my choice. I decided to create the concept for my own photography book—especially since our partner project was to design three two-page spread that would be inside our dust jackets.

Process:
I had the idea from the beginning that I could create a topographical map of some sort to hint toward all the places I’ve been and taken pictures in. This was my first time using the ‘Image Trace’ function in Adobe Illustrator, so it was definitely a learning curve to get the right amount of my sketches without too much noise. I think using this function, instead of tracing my sketches digitally, made my illustrations much more rustic and feel like they were from a worn map rather than being clean, crisp lines. It also forced me to think more about the stroke vs. the fill in my work and the role of negative space in my illustrations.

Outcome:
After completing this project, it made me want to actually publish my own book using the topographical map concept. Most of the photography books I’ve gotten my hands on are clean and minimalist, and although this works great for focusing on the content inside the photos, I think it would be much more visually interesting to experiment with photos connected by a path, like on a map.