THE BRIEF
To create a book cover for the scientifically minded community with an interest in the origins of life, the definition of what makes life and the meta physical.
The difficulty was to make the cover to appear scientific and neutral while at the same time leading towards the more philosophical nature of the book. It could not look too new-age but it was not a text book either.
The blurb:
The traditional model of how the universe and life came about has some very serious gaps in it which many scientists of all persuasions tend to ignore. In my view, the idea of a physical reality being created out of nothing is a bizarre notion. Instead, I suggest that in contrast to an understanding of the world in which the evolution of Homo sapiens is almost incidental to ‘the way things really are’, knowledge is always the product of a living entity and its perceived environment.
This means that awareness, thinking and knowing things are not just the prerogative of human beings, but of all beings, whether they are micro-organisms or plants, trees, insects, fish or mammals. My conclusion is that all living beings have the ability not only to grow, metabolise nutrients and reproduce, but also to know the appropriate responses to problematic situations. We are all ‘knowing beings’ within our own reality.
THE PROCESS
The initial concepts explored different ideas/ angles to deal with the subject. Some where more focused on the evolution side of life, some more on the scientific research and some on the conceptual/ philosophical thinking.
We picked 2 designs that evoked both the scientific and the more conceptual/ philosophical aspects. I combined them into one design that grabs attention but doesn’t scream too loud at the reader.
These two concepts had the elements that were needed.
The hand shows the idea of us, humans, reaching out other life. It encourages the idea that life is not defined, can be very different from us but still have a conscience. We are now waking up to the idea that evolution could have happened from a different origin and the hand is to represent that.
The other design is the single cell organism, that smallest version of life that makes us think of a very different kind of life and open our minds to this other existence.
The combination of these two concepts is the hand reaching out to the single cell organism, on an abstract, cosmic background.
The organism has been changed to a more geometric and more abstract shape, and on the back page, a more conceptual idea of a mind with it’s soul or energetic “being” exposed.
What makes us what we are and what can be defined as awareness?
THE RESULTS
After some adjustments for layout, design and typography, the final result encompasses all the ideas that were important into one.
Additional details were added and adjusted.
The client was very happy with the result of the book. He chose to also get his book uploaded to Kindle and I set up and designed the interior pages to be Kindle friendly while having beautiful design included.
The upload went easily and without any problem.
You can purchase the book at Amazon here:
After having been told that the cover of a book is crucial in attracting the kind of person who would be interested in the topic, I looked around for help and found that on Ina’s website where she showcased the work that she did on giving ‘The spark of life’ a better image than it previously had (https://www.inawonderworld.com/project/the-spark-of-life-book-cover-design/.)
My popular science book ‘Knowing Being’, which documents how life gave birth to the material world (and not the other way around!), required a special blend of images that mixed the importance and the intelligence of the first one-cellular being and the evolution of a species-specific reality.
It was somewhat of a nebulous mixture of ideas but Ina accomplished that by creating a powerful combination of mystery, thoughtfulness, abstract thinking and a wonder about life.
Ina nailed it. Not only with respect to the quality of the finished product but also in the way in which she intelligently summarised the main thrust of the book by using abstract images each of which captured the mystery of being.
I can thoroughly recommend her work and the warm and caring manner with which she interacts with her clients.