Isabella Muñoz
A Visual communications student in the Art and design foundation course. Specialist skills in illustration and design.
A Visual communications student in the Art and design foundation course. Specialist skills in illustration and design.
My final project focuses on creating a limited edition version of the 4 volumes of the Chinese classic literature ‘The Journey to the west’ by Wu Cheng’en translated by Anthony C Yu.
The main aim was to express the identity of the story by making each book unique in the characters and color themes as well as create a style that binds these books together through relativity, contemporary design and tie to Chinese art.
Designs that consist a balance between typography and illustration. Layout however is quite modern due to layout of illustration and typography.
Designs that consist the focus of the main characters full portrait rather than the text as it is focused more on the spine and blurb. This design also has a balance, however mostly relies on the illustration and design rather than just text itself.
Designs that have the contemporary illustrations of the characters wrapped around the book, making the design a central function to readers whilst the text resides on the spine and in the small blurb.
This design was most preferred by viewers due to how it was not only a modern design that would connect to audiences of today who interests lies in these limited edition designs, but also how they show relativity towards Chinese art.
Before the designs, I first handmade clothbound covers in order to give of the limited edition aesthetic of the books in its individual colors that were significant in Chinese mythology and art, and thus was successful in making these models.
I wanted to see first how one of the design would look like as a paperback version and how both text and illustration are able to work together in this form. Especially with the gold leaf.
