josie miller andrea herstowski university of kansas bookjacket
“can you judge a book by it’s cover? OF COURSE YOU CAN.”
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project brief A really good book cover has to work regardless of what it’s about, on a visceral and emotional level. Chip Kidd
NOUNS 1) Person: a character from the book 2) Place: setting 3) Thing: representative object.
Can you judge a book by it’s cover? Of course you can. How is your book going to be judged? You will be developing three different design directions for one book. You need a book that has depth, character development and a sense of place and or time.
MEDIA 1) image dominate (phography, illustration, collage...) 2) type dominate (computer, manipulated, hand drawn, photographed...) 3) no computer (can not use the computer for main image/typography, title, subtitle and author)
You will be creating three different designs for one book. As a designer you will often be asked to create different concepts to present to a client. We are going to use the following formula Noun + Media. Each cover will use a different noun + media combination.
Deliverables: Cover, spine, back cover, flaps, end papers, title page, process book and presentation
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inspiration
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book research book: The Shack
genre: theological fiction
author: Paul Young
mood/tone: underlying optimism, hope, uplifting theme
summary: Makenzie Allen Philips youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later, in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back into that shack for the weekend. Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack’s world forever. In a world where religion seems to grow increasingly irrelevant The Shack wrestles with the timeless question: Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain? The answers Mack gets will astound you and perhaps transform you as much as it did him. You’ll want everyone you know to read this book!
quotes: “THE SHACK is the most absorbing work of fiction I’ve read in many years. My wide and I laughed, cried, and repented of our own lack of faith along the way. THE SHACK will leave you craving for the presence of God.” – Michael W Smith, recording artist “This story reads like a prayer- like the best kind of prayer, filled with sweat and wonder and transparency and surprise. If you read one work of fiction this year, let this be it.” - Mike Morrell, Zoecarnate.com “Reading THE SHACK during a very difficult transition in my life, this story has blown the door wide open to my soul.” – Wynonna Judd, recording artist #1 new york times best seller over seven million copies in print
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book reviews reviews: “When the imagination of a writer and the passion of a theologian cross-fertilize, the result is a novel on the order of THE SHACK. This book has the potential to do for our generation what John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress did for his. It’s that good!” –Regent College, Vancouver, B.C. “While reading THE SHACK, I realized the questions unfolding in this captivating novel were questions I was carrying deep within me. The beauty of this book is not that it supplies easty answers to grueling questions, but that it invites you to come in close to a God of mercy and love, in whom we find hope and healing.” – Jim Palmer, author of Divine Nobodies “THE SHACK is a one-of-a-kind invitation to journey tothe very heart of God. Through my tears and cheers, I have been indeed transformed by the tender mercy with which William Paul Young opened the veil that too often separated me from God and from my-
self. With every page, the complicated do’s and don’ts that distort a relationship into a religion were washed away as I understood Father, Son, and Spirit for the first time in my life.” –Patrick M. Roddy, Emmy Award- winning producer for the ABC News “Wrapped in creative brilliance, THE SHACK is spiritually profound, theologically enlightening, and life impacting. It has my highest recommendation. We are joyfully giving copies away by the case.” – Steve Berger, pastor of Grace Chapel, Leipers Fork, TN “THE SHACK is a beautiful story of how God comes to find us in the midst of our sorrows, trapped by disappointments, betrayed by our own presumptions. He never leaves us where He finds us, unless we insist.” – Wes Yoder, Ambassador Speakers Bureau “THE SHACK will change the way you think about God forever.” – Kathie Lee Gifford, cohost, NBC’s Today Show
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author research author: Paul was born a Canadian and along with three younger siblings was raised among a stone-age tribe by his missionary parents in the highlands of what was New Guinea. The family returned to Canada where his father pastured a number of churches for various denominations. By the time he entered Canadian Bible College, Paul had attended a dozen schools. He completed his undergraduate degree in religion at Warner Pacific College in Portland, Oregon. While in Oregon, Paul attended seminary and met and married Kim. Together they celebrate “the wastefulness of grace” with their six children, two daughters-in-law, and now two grandchildren. In his Web site biography (windrumors.com), Paul writes, “These are some of the facts of my life, but they
don’t begin to tell the real story. The journey has been both incredible and unbearable, a desperate grasping after grace and wholeness. Facts cannot tell you about the pain of trying to adjust to different cultures; of life losses that were almost too staggering to bear; of walking down railroad tracks at night in the middle of winter, screaming into a windstorm; of living with an underlying volume of shame so deep and loud that it constantly threatened any sense of sanity; of dreams not only destroyed but obliterated by personal failure; of hope so tenuous that only the trigger seemed to offer a solution. These few facts also do not speak to the potency of love and forgiveness, the arduous road of reconciliation, the surprises of grace and community, of transformational healing and the unexpected emergence of joy.”
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character research character one: 1. Mackenzie Allen Phillips: The main character. He is in a constant state of sadness since his youngest daughter, Missy, is abducted and killed by a serial killer. Mack is a good man and husband, but his sadness has held him back greatly in the years leading up to when he get’s a piece of mail, inviting him to the place where his daughter was possibly brutally beaten. Mack is a courageous guy, though he is fearful and at times very insecure and lonely. He is confused about many things, though he still has hope that life can get better. Mack is the protagonist, and also at times, his own antagonist. Generally throughout the story he is pitied, loved, and hated at various times.
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character research character two: Eloisa (Papa) is the unknown author of the note given to Mack through the mail, asking Mack to join him in the shack where Mack’s daughter was killed. Later in the story we find out that Eloisa is actually Mack’s representation of God. She is extremely loving, comforting, supportive, and considerate. Eloisa understands Mack’s heart of hearts, and she is able to listen and care for him to ease him through the pain of losing his daughter in such a tragic way. She is loved by the reader throughout the story. She is definitely a protagonist.
character three: Jesus is one of the protagonists of the story. He looks Middle Eastern, with darker skin and darker hair. He is described as average looking, not extremely attractive or ugly by any means. He is a great friend to Mack and is supportive as Mack struggles through his questions. Jesus is sacrificial, loving, loyal, and compassionate to Mack throughout the entire story. Jesus as one of the protagonists really tries to make sure Mack isn’t making himself the antagonist of his own life. Jesus is loved for his friendship with Mack, but also because of his loyalty and love for Eloise.
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character research character four: Sophia is the personification of God’s wisdom that Mack encounters later in the story. She is described as the epitome of beautiful, and she is said to be wearing red, and a crown. Sophia is kind and gentle, yet she is able to address directly Mack’s hardships and helps him learn to accept the hard lessons he has encountered. I personally really like her and wanted to include her in the character list because I feel that she is the voice of reason and rationality, which I could use aesthetically in various ways. She is appreciated in the story by the readers by her honesty and wisdom.
character blurb:
In order to provide a deeper understanding of the story, the design uses elements to represent good and evil and everything in between. The grungy imagery serves to display the heart wrenching aspects of the novel in various forms.
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setting research setting: Mackenzie Allen Phillips lives in Oregon just south of Canada near the Rocky Mountain Cascades. It is wintertime throughout the book, though Mack believes that spring is just around the corner. Much of the story is set in an abandoned shack in the Oregon wilderness, where Mack’s daughter, Missy, was killed. The weather was below freezing and snow was all throughout the forest where the shack resided. At one point, as Mack is walking up the trail towards the shack, ‘a sudden rush of warm air [overtook] him from behind.’ Soon enough, the scene looks picture perfect, and the abandoned shack turns into a ‘sturdy and beautifully constructed log cabin’. The narrator expresses that ‘everything that Mack could see was now postcard perfect. Smoke was lazily wending its way from the chimney into the late- afternoon sky’ and that ‘It was a place that Mack could have imagined only in his best dreams... Flowers bloomed everywhere, and the mix of floral fragrances and pungent herbs aroused hints of memories long forgotten’.
setting blurb:
In order to display the magestical setting, the design aims to visualize the balance between goodness and evil in the novel. The grungy, edgy imagery uses extreme contrast in form and in color to refrence the questions hiding deep within the heart of the book.
word list: snow silence ice bird chirp lillies forest green trees/twigs leaves winter bark moss deer white brown cold gloves scarf fear tense hidden dark sunlight mud animal prints chapped lips blue nose flushed cheeks hats log cabin
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object research object: The lady bug pin is an object that holds weight throughout the novel. On the casket, which is made by Jesus there are carvings of her favorite flowers and animals, which represent the simple sweetness of her life. Within the carvings is a yellow lady bug pin, which was the object the serial killer was known for leaving at the scene of the abduction. The pin displayed evil that is very present in the world, and also it showed respect for her pain and her death. A picnic table is also carved on the coffin, representing the young girl’s vulnerability, since she was taken from the picnic table while the family was saving her brother who was drowning in the lake. Flowers fill the casket at the end, showing that though there is pain, God can bring peace and create goodness even from the mess that evil creates. Through the coffin, Mack is able to see that pain and life’s failures are part of the process of being a human. The lady bug pin is a sick reminder throughout the story of evil in the world. The pin becomes a very memorable object by the end of the story.
object blurb:
In order to provide a deeper understanding of the story, the design uses elements to represent good and evil and everything in between. The grungy imagery serves to display the heart wrenching aspects of the novel in various forms.
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type studies
PAUL YOUNG
the shack p a u l
y o u n g
THE SHACK paul young Paul Young
TpaulHyoung E SHACK
The Shack
paul young
The Shack
Paul Young
the shack
Paul Young
paul young
THE SHACK PA U L
Y O U N G
The Shack Paul Young
the shack paul young
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visual library
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initial cover sketches
the shack p a u l
y o u n g
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refined cover and jacket
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endpage ideas
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title page ideas
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character refinements
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setting refinements
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object refinements
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final book jackets, end papers, and title pages
thank you