Moby Dick Book Illustrations

A redesign of Herman Melville's Moby Dick, appealing to a younger audience of high school and college level students through the use of bold and dramatic imagery, and retro colours. The goal of the project was to create illustrations that will get younger readers more excited about this important classic novel. The concept was not to focus on the whale as has been done repeatedly throughout the decades, but instead to concentrate on Captain Ahab's obsession with revenge, which is the real driving theme behind the novel. By showing Ahab reflected in the whale's eye on the front over as a menacing and angular shape, the goal was to show that his rage is the true monster, not the whale that he has fixated on. By showing the whale trapped by harpoons on the back cover, I wanted to reiterate that the whale is not the villain, but instead, is just the target of Ahab's own self-entrapment/internal struggle to control his emotions. The colour choice was designed to stand out to the target audience in a bookstore or on an online retailer's website. The textural quality is designed to create a feeling of ruggedness and danger, which is central to the novel. This project was part of a series of classic book redesigned intended for the same target audience.