During a class at Georgia Southern University, our professor asked us as a class a month before the project was introduced to start collecting ephemera, things that exist or are used or enjoyed for only a short period of time. AKA: garbage. He told us to keep anything that caught our eye and to bring it to class when it was time to start the project. So when it was time to bring my garbage pile to class, I looked and found I had collected a small cardboard box filled with granola bar wrappers, an old gift card, chocolate bar wrappers and various other items. The professor then explained to us that we had to create a book design out of the ephemera we collected; it could be any book, whether it really existed or not. This is how I turned a chocolate bar into the book cover for the beloved Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett novel, Good Omens.
I thought it would be a good idea to establish a book to work with so I could make sure the design I wanted to create would look like the subject matter of the book and and aesthetic were related. This proved to be the most difficult part of the process. I tried to work the ephemera into titles such as The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and Watership Down but could not stylistically blend them in a way I was happy with.
I then found a candy bar box from a trip I went on with my family to Cozumel, Mexico. We took a tour of The Mayan Cacao Company and I fell in love with their branding. Their chocolate was delicious, of course (We bought one bar of each flavor!) but I loved the simplicity and use of colors. I originally kept these chocolate boxes to frame and put on display in my kitchen, but I put one in my ephemera box since it was supposed to be thrown away after the chocolate was eaten. I brought it out and played around with a novel that I had been reading at the time: Good Omens. It tells the story of a demon and an angel as they work together to stop the Apocalypse; it’s a very funny, enjoyable book.
As I began to design the dust jacket of my project, I was inspired by the layout and use of 3 colors, as well as the geometric pattern featured on the chocolate box. It was important that elements of the story were included in the cover to help entice readers to want to pick up the book and enjoy its contents. The main character, Crowley, drives a 1926 Bentley which has a very distinctive looking front profile and much of the book takes place in this vehicle. The angel/demon motif is one that has been done countless times in the past, but with the two main characters being a demon and an angel, I thought it exciting to challenge myself to represent these characters in familiar, yet new and unique ways. In the end, I was very please with how this project came out. I love the colors, layout and typefaces used.
The Mayan Cacao Company branding was created by Slogan Comunicación Publicitaria with Creative Directors: Pablo Casares and Eduardo Macswiney. Elideth Huescu and Carmen Ordoñez are the Directors of Art and Design.
