This project was to enter a Penguin Book Publishers design competition, where the project guidelines included all neccessary book cover dimensions, and all the content that needed to be included. After reading the book and doing research on the themes and historical context, I started thinking about some of the important themes of the book, such as death, war, abuse, and in the end, restoration.
Goodnight Mister TomBookcover Design
Goodnight Mister Tom is a childrens book about an abused boy who is sent to live with a lonely and bitter old man during World War II. As they come to know and understand each other’s pain, they become close. Taking care of each other throughout countless traumatic events they experience during the events of the book, they form a lifelong bond of friendship.
I chose to make the book blue in an effort to make it appealing to the target audience, children, without detracting from the sorrowful themes of the book. I included fighter jets to communicate the historical context of world war II, and gravestones to communicate the death that the characters experienced throught the story. Finally, the last elements I incorperated was a wood texture reminiscent of the closet door where the boy was locked in by his mother to starve; and a keyhole to show the bright future the two main characters have together after the trauma they experienced.