The Smallest Woman in the World
The Alarming Revenge of a Domestic Pet
All of these stories must be read before the first session of the assignment.
First Reading
Read each of the stories and prepare initial sketches and ideas to show and discuss after the final critiques of the first several assignments. Your sketches should be fairly simple and clear—keep them small and avoid going into any detail. At this point, gathering a ton of disparate ideas is the only things that really matter. Make notes about other people's concepts and make notes—it's not a direct collaboration, but you are welcome to exchange ideas, as long as there's no blatant plagiarism.
The Actual Assignment
Pick one of the stories read over the course of the semester and make at least three sketches for the cover design, including the text placement and any other design elements.
The name of the author and the story must be present.
Additionally, you can design the spine and the back cover of the book, or even French Flaps and/or any other additional elements that you'd like to explore.
At this stage it's common practice to go through dozens of very simple sketches, meant only to convey the general idea of the direction. Therefore, don’t spend too much time on these sketches and keep them simple and clear.
Prepare to talk more about the story, do research on the author, maybe even read some criticism (although not on goodreads or amazon).
Once the general idea is picked, you can proceed to final sketches. These don’t have to be particularly tight and finished, but they should give a decent idea of the style.
Remember that the illustration should be conceptual, in keeping with the subtitle of this class. It doesn't have to be a metaphor, but it should have a layer of depth, something to elevate it from a straightforward depiction of the story.
Format: any conventional (or unconventional, if the concept justifies it) book size