Concept
This book cover redesign is based on the overall mood, theme and feeling on the story, "The Silent Patient." Developing a design based on the story gave each design choice meaning and taught me, as a designer, new problem-solving techniques.
The Silent Patient is about a psychotherapist, Theo Farber, who hears about an artist, Alicia Berenson, who had murdered her husband without a motive and hasn't spoken since. With a desire to get her story, Theo applies for a position at the hospital she is admitted to. The journey to get her story straight takes a dark and unexpected turn.
Process: Moodboard
The images chosen for the mood board is based on feeling, symbolism and design inspiration. Since the book often has excerpts from one of the main characters diary, the text filled imagery fits the narrative of a complex story on someone's personal life. There is a lot of information that is hidden from the audience until the very end; therefore the overall design could have a dark and distorted effect. Fire and smoke is prevalent throughout the story as they symbolize addiction that can take over ones life.
Process: Concepts
Concept 1 is based on the diary that the main character has, revealing the truth about their story. The overwhelming scribbles resembles her paranoia and anxiety, which would come from her real excerpts in the book.
Concept 2 is more abstract with the imagery of the two main characters looking at each other through would could be a door, window or mirror. I wanted to portray the fact that Alicia is trapped and is overwhelmed by a dark void. Her eyes being the only feature you can see because in the book, even though her mouth says nothing, her eyes tell her truth.
Concept #1
Concept #2
Finished Design
The final book cover features a diary that has been torn into slips of paper. Each slip of paper has thoughts of paranoia to symbolize the overwhelming anxiety she felt. The diary has burn marks, symbolizing the erasure of Alicia's troubles, that people had minimized her down to a cold-blooded murderer. The burning can also be symbolized as addiction, as it consumes a persons life. Theo Farber was addicted to cigarettes and finding out Alicia's truth. The overall design is dark, with highlights of red to resemble themes of murder and crime.
