Anna Karenina
2021
Anna Karenina is a novel written by Leo Tolstoy set in late 19th century Imperial Russia. Although there are multiple main characters and plotlines, the book’s focal point revolves around the novel’s namesake, Anna, a high-class socialite trapped in a loveless marriage. In addition, the book explores contrasting themes such as trust and betrayal; love and hate; life and death; city versus rural living; social, political, industrial, transportation change; social roles and class.
Responsibilities
My roles during this project included researcher, designer, and copywriter.
Goal
Many of the previous covers felt static both visually and emotionally, so my goal was to emphasize the story of Anna’s passion, rebellion, and tragedy through the dust jacket re-design.
Challenge
Creating an updated cover that appeals to the modern reader and revitalizes this classic piece of literature.
Target Audience
The target audience includes adults aged 21 to 55 years old who are bookworms and strongly appreciate classical literature and period pieces.
Previous Cover Examples
Moodboard & Sketching
I laid out themes and artifacts from the book in my moodboard to evaluate their visual potency and experiment with combining different parts to make up a cohesive concept. For example, trains are a significant theme within the plot, so I wanted to incorporate one on the cover.
First Digital Drafts
Taking the sketch ideas that I felt had the strongest potential for portraying the overall tone and themes of the book, I focused on developing several cover concepts in my initial digital round. At this point, I was considering sticking to a minimalist graphic style to modernize the book. Something was missing, though. There wasn’t enough dynamism, tension, tragedy, and representation of themes.
Second Digital Drafts
During the next digital round, I narrowed down my concept options and expanded their designs to make up a complete cover in the form of a dust jacket. It was here that I explored a second and completely different direction from the first variation based on feedback from the previous round.
Typography & Color Palette
I chose Quattrocento for the display type for its regality and embellished boldness. With it, I paired Calluna Sans for the body for its romantically poetic curves and flow.
Final Solution
The black background sets a dark and ominous tone for the cover. The white and pink stand out starkly against the backdrop. The highly contrasting color palette I chose represents the contrast of themes that Leo portrays in his novel. The bright pink represents passion and adds a bold and feminine touch. The train is a metaphor for Anna’s love and relationship with Vronsky, which sweeps her away, but is the cause of her demise in the end. Anna’s eyes stare bleakly through the bar-like cut-out windows, symbolizing her trapped position within society. I edited the photos to be black and white to give a subtle vintage feeling to align with the era of the book while still maintaining a modern, rebellious and tragic mood with a hint of punk mentality. Anna wore veils when traveling in the book, and the smoke on the cover represents that. It partially veils and obscures the title and subtitle to draw the viewer closer to discover what’s behind the plume.
Reflection
This project was a fun one for me. Upon starting, I had just finished reading the book and had so many ideas jumping around in my mind that it was hard to narrow down to one direction. It was a good problem, though, and it helped me discover the solution that best fits the book process-of-elimination style.
I’m proud of how the final book cover and jacket stand out from the competition. It is modern, high-contrast, emotionally charged, successfully embeds immediate meaning to the viewer through the symbols and themes depicted.
My biggest takeaway was trusting the process and learning to not treat the book cover sections as separate parts but rather as an interconnected whole with endless interaction possibilities.