The problem I set out to resolve with this project was to unite the three different novels by Celeste Ng into one specialty set despite their different stories. I was able to tie similar themes across three novels, use a set of matching fonts, one art style and matching color palette to create a congruent specialty set.

My creative process began with researching the material. Although I had read two of three books she had published, I went back to read all three so I could take notes of symbolism and overlapping themes. From there, I listed all the individual themes, important scenes and symbolism each book focused on and found similarities to tie the series together. I knew from the beginning I wanted to illustrate the book so I also began researching styles and artists I admired that created work that I felt would match the dramatic mood of the work. Notably Katherine Lam, Lushuirou, Jon Mcnaught and many other editorial artists. 

However I ran into issues of tying the individual stories together with their themes. As a solution, I eventually found that overlapping themes with play on patterns and repetition being interrupted, to visually communicate isolation, assimilation and drama helped tie the series together. Play with shadows and dark color palettes evoked another somber theme found throughout Ng's work, secrecy. 

Lastly, the identical placement of typography evoked cohesiveness and tied the series together as a book collection. The second issue I resolved was the paper. I initially printed the cover on glossy paper, however with feedback and many test prints I discovered a cream linen paper that gave the book covers a grided texture that reflected the patterns found in the design. 

The third issue I ran into with this design was having some sort of interaction between the book cover and book jacket, I did not want to take any attention away from the illustrations, but enhance it. So as a solution, I cut out shapes that represented what the main story was trying to resolve, solve or find.