Existing Book Covers

This book cover is quite classical so fits with the era of the book. The book shows the mockingbird and the tree. 

The first edition cover shows an illustration of a tree. In Chapter 7 of To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout and Jem find many gifts inside the knot-hole of an old tree on the Radley property.  They find sticks of gum, a boy and a girl carved out of soap, and a spelling medal, among other things.  Scout and Jem eagerly look forward to each discovery inside of the knot-hole.  Boo Radley is the one leaving the gifts in the knot-hole. The cover subtly references an important theme in the book but gives nothing away about the story if it hasn't been read. the semiotics behind this cover is simply the portrayal of the tree as a communicator between the Children and Boo Radley. I think the book cover has been communicated in a very subtle way and I can't decide if this a completely good thing, maybe the a slightly more important symbol in the book. The cover says nothing to someone who has never read the book before.

In order to design my book covers I conducted some 

research into To Kill A Mockingbird, I read the book in order to understand the key themes of the storyline. I also watched the film in order to get a feel for the gothic western aesthetics. 

I analysed existing book covers of To Kill A Mockingbird and from this realised I needed to go down an illustrative route as this is more fitting to the book and my style. I found that most of the existing book covers are a little bit outdated as the book was written back in the 60’s. The colour schemes were quite dull and the typefaces are old fashioned. 

Previous winners of the Penguin book prize use selected bold sections of colour, and the colour palettes are limited