Dreams
A dreamy book cover concept for a hypothetical collection of Carl Jung essays.
Project Overview
Objective
Design a book cover for a hypothetical collection of Carl Jung essays centered around the concept of dreams. Developed for my Creative Concepts course at The University of Baltimore.
Solution
My book cover plays on Jung’s idea of dreams as a window into the psyche, and it’s designed to spark curiosity. The illustrated woman stares directly at the viewer and is surrounded by symbols representing common dreams in a vibrant dream space, hinting at the concepts of self-awareness, analysis, and symbolism that are so core to Jung’s work.
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Discovery
My goal for this project was to create a book cover design that appeals to college and graduate students, as well as anyone generally interested in learning about dream analysis. To help me understand and explore Jung's concepts, I brainstormed ideas that I thought would interest my audience groups, performed visual and factual research, and developed word lists and mind maps to help me determine what to explore further.
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Experimentation
Once I had a solid understanding of the problem space, I was able to start ideating. I went through several rounds of sketching, exploring a variety of concepts related to three core themes: dreams as a window into the psyche, dreams as a form of self-reflection, and dreams as a form of self-research.
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Implementation
After getting feedback on my sketches from my classmates, I was ready to move forward with my final design. By playing with the idea of dreams as a window into the psyche, I aimed to illustrate Jung's belief that our unconscious minds use dreams as a way to communicate with our conscious selves. Every element of my design reinforces this idea. The subject of the cover is quite literally reading her dreams, and the design prompts users to physically look beneath the surface of the book to find greater meaning — two things that Jung's essays will teach readers to do themselves. And outside of its symbolism, my cover concept is also designed to intrigue. Its unique qualities, along with its fresh design, will make it stand apart on any book shelf.
