For my first book cover concept of this project, I wanted to focused on quite possibly, the most commonly known aspect of climate change - sea level rising which ultimately creates flooding. Flooding is heavily featured throughout the book as one of the many natural disasters that lie ahead.
Throughout the book, ‘An Uninhabited Earth’ by David Wallace-Wells, we find many pieces of information and quotes on the subject:
“thanks to flooding and literal sinking, it [Jakarta; one of the worlds fastest growing cities] could be entirely underwater as soon as 2050″
“Damages from river flooding would grow thirty fold”
“flood damage would increase by between 160 and 240%”
“even empires of agribusinesses slipping underwater”
Taking inspiration from this, I thought about how I could engulf my typography in water to show a them of drowning/flooding. I experimented with some thick display text and water.
I really wanted to recreate the reflected lettering in this experiment as I felt this was the clearest way to show the letters were underwater.
I also played around with photographing this myself however found it really difficult to capture the image I wanted with the tools I had. I eventually used a stock image to recreate the lettering sliding underwater and this became the cover for my first concept.
I used a thick display font and gave it a 3D look in photoshop as I wanted it to look as thought it was light enough to be floating but heavy enough to be sinking, into the deep water below. I also wanted this text to appear clean, shiny and industrial, like the many cities of the modern world who will unexpectedly be engulfed in water in the future. I chose a relatively clean image of clear water as I wanted give a feeling of depth and unknown to create some fear.
I think took the design into InDesign to add the template and the additional text. I think this cover captures the bleakness of the future of the earth well and I am happy with the overall finished product. I wish I could have captured the image of the water myself however my underwater camera skills leave a lot to be desired.
Having put my work into a mock up file is PS (a rather difficult job to align with the wrap around cover and less than ideal PSD file), I am glad I chose on large singular image to wrap around the book. It carries the message of drowning on in a cohesive manner.
If I were feeling fancy and designing to my own brief, I would have the image of the water on the book as a dust jacket that could be removed to reveal the rest of the text below. I would emboss it slightly so it had a shiny feel and a soft matte cover underneath.
