Independent Research - 1984 Book Covers

After spending yesterday analysing and breaking down a series of book covers from George Orwell's 'Animal Farm', I was intrigued to head home and look at how it has been done in other ways. Although I hadn't read Animal Farm before, the covers gave me a sense of what it was about, and the pig (in various forms such as silhouettes, illustrated, or collage) was always the focal point of the image. That's why I found it interesting when search for covers of his famous novel '1984'.

I decided to go on Pinterest and search for a whole range of book covers. Amongst all of the covers, there seemed to be an eye as the focal point, or dominant feature in them all. Each cover had a similar Wehi, in a sense that it was meant to make the viewer seem a bit 'creeped out', with an eye looking directly at them. I have pasted four examples below on this blog post, with some brief annotations alongside.

The above image has quite an interesting rhetoric approach, with the design paying homage to the typical war propaganda, which consisted of the rays, and a similar colour scheme to the one used here. As stated prior, the eye is the focal point in this design, however it has been placed central, yet the actual eye itself is slightly off centred, and seems to be looking away. It gives the feel that it's looking slightly to the side, although since it's uncomfortably right in front of you, your every move will be caught. The style that the eye has been created in seems appear as if it's on an olden day TV screen, with the many horizontal lines running across, hinting that everything may be being recorded or watched from somewhere else.

This design, again features an eye on the page, the eye has been created through the slight tweak of the number 8, where the two rings overlap to make an eye shape in the centre. This image, featuring a very simple colour scheme, doesn't give the viewer as much of an idea about what the novel may be about, although there is still some degree of discomfort due to the eye image. The shape that surrounds the text is also in the shape of an eye. 

This design, although in a very different stylistic and rhetoric approach, still manages to make the viewer feel uncomfortable, possibly even more so than the past covers. The extreme distortion of the illustration, along with the contrast between black and white, with a light blue shade mixed in amongst the illustration, is quite strange and off-putting. The duplication of the eyes creates rhythm, and gives an indication that the viewer is being watched, giving an idea of what the book is about. 

Again, as per the previous three book covers, an eye is featured within the cover's design, indicating that a major part of the dystopian novel is about being watched, and possibly having an uncomfortable lack of privacy. The colours used are quite old fashioned, almost army green colours, which could represent something being enforced or ordered, in reference to the public being forced to think how 'Big Brother' wants them to think. This design, much like the second cover, is a very simplistic approach. 

Despite keeping the annotations for these examples relatively brief (compared to the depth we analysed in class), it was interesting to go through and again see the different rhetoric and stylistic approaches, ultimately to portray the same issue or standpoint. Much like in Animal Farm, where the pig was a recurring feature across all of the covers, in this case, the Eye is an ever present. As I continue to ideate and come up with a whole range of ideas that could represent New Zealand's current lack of national identity within our existing flag, this research will help me to see that the stylistic and rhetoric approaches can be completely different.