Kristin Lavransdatter
I wanted to set myself a design challenge to design book covers for this classic by Nobel Prize winning author Sigrid Undset. Set in medieval Norway but written during the years 1918–20, I wanted to modernise and highlight the universal human experiences the books describe, that go beyond religion and historical time periods. Strategically thinking, I wanted the designs to appeal to young readers and others who are not familiar with the work.
The main character Kristin is depicted as small in size compared to the circle representing the wreath. The wreath symbolises the struggles Kristin experiences in order to live up to the expectations placed on her.
The books take us through the life of Kristin, from her birth in the first book to her death in the third. The colour of red, often represented Earth in art of the Middle Ages. Violet used for the second book was the colour of Kristin's wedding dress, and blue on the third book represents heaven.
Kristin had seven sons, which take up most of her attention in this book. They are presented in the shape of a crown, representing Kristin's bridal crown.
The Cross: The Black Plague arrives. The shapes alludes to prominant themes in the book such as duality, death and love
Dividing the books into three separate novels as they were originally published, makes sense in order to attract new readers, who might feel overwhelmed by reading such a voluminous book as they are when collected into one book. The three spines that form an image when placed in a book shelf also contributes to making the three books desirable to collect as a set.
(The publisher Aschehoug own the rights to these books, and the logos are placed on the covers to follow their brand guidelines and to add an extra design challenge. But please note these designs are purely a self-initiated project for my own practice.)
Covers for a book series on Agile methodology
A new design challenge was to design a series of book covers around an abstract theme. I chose these books that are excellent introductions to the Agile methodology. I thought the original cover designs didn't do them justice.
As the topic of these books are rather abstract and where the methodology is not limited to one particular discipline I decided to use a typographical approach. This helped me to avoid the searching for imagery that easily is misleading or very over-used. The idea is that the typographic compositions convey the feeling of project management and problem solving. The unusual compositions encourage the viewers to spend a couple of seconds more trying to 'figure out' the message.
Written in a very accessible style, I wanted the books to reflect this by being light and airy, with a little bit of playfulness to them.
(These books by Gil Broza are published by 3PVantage. These designs are a self-initiated for my own practice and the publisher has no involvement in the project.)
