An idea for the binding for my BNW mini project.
I have a few ideas but is the first. Got it done pretty quick as it mostly uses drawings, colours and layers from the existing illustrations. I want the binding to look consistent with the internal illustrations so it made sense to start with what I already had.
I think the pill imagery is key to the themes of BNW. While some dystopian authors like George Orwell, focus on the idea of control through force and censorship, it is important to realise Huxley’s novel does not share this theme but instead suggest it will be our own contentment that will control us. Huxley’s society are numbed and controlled by drugs which keep them happy. I’ve used the pill as a sort of boundary for each baby to represent both the bottle they are grown in and the control the drugs have over them their whole lives.
I also think the baby/fetus imagery should be included in the cover as it is perhaps the most shocking idea in the book; the idea that people are simple grown in bottles and “decanted”. It is eye-catching and intriguing so I would like to feature this imagery on the cover without regurgitating my internal illustration for The Hatchery.
The one baby on it’s own represents John, the Savage, the protagonist. John was not “decanted” into “civilisation” although he “belongs” there genetically so I’ve represented him on the cover as the same but different, not grown from the bottle, not controlled and restricted by soma (drugs) but trying to fit into the order (grid) of “civilisation”.
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