Artifact project
Art Nouveau illustrations fascinate me, which is why I chose to challenge myself and base my project off of them – and what better person to study than Alphonse Mucha?
I decided that instead of completely copying one of Mucha’s designs, I would rather take a three-dimensional approach and make a book cover for a theoretical biography book.
Recreating Mucha’s illustration was quite a challenge, to say the least, especially at the scale I was working at (the size of the Gombrich textbook.) His work is so intricately detailed, and since my goal was to create an accurate reproduction, I had to be extremely careful. Nonetheless, it was an enjoyable process and I am proud of having tackled it.
As for the spread design itself, I wanted the book cover to be well integrated into the layout while remaining the focal point. I chose to use books and dip pens. Both relate to the process work of my project and make sense in terms of the era in which my work is based on. Keeping it simple was key as I did not want to layout to overpower the artifact itself.
I would give myself an 8/10 for this project. I think the figure on the cover is accurately painted, but I see some flaws in the other parts of the design. There is always something to fix, after all. Something that would have been interesting to do would have been to incorporate vintage books into the layout, but unfortunately, I do not have any on hand. Overall, though, I quite enjoyed this project and am happy with the outcome.