When I first started designing book covers, which was for Venus Febriculosa's 'Lolita' book cover... it became apparent that book covers are difficult tasks. They need to be direct, yet implicitly reflecting the theme of the book. 'Lolita' is an even more difficult title to work on. There has been interpretations, mostly the painting of the girl herself which has been glorified by Stanley Kubrick's film. The girl has always stereotypically been portrayed as the young siren, with the heart-shaped shades, heart-shaped lollies, feet too small for those high heels...etc.
But I thought as much as she is portrayed as this little seducer, she really is not. The theme is not about the girl, but how Humbert with his obsession saw her as a sex object.
The only visual that stood out for me was John Gall's. When I saw that, I got so thrilled because it showed such brilliance. Many people thought of it as crude and obscene, but that really is the underlying theme of the book! He rotated the orientation of a young girl's lips. Nothing obscene about it. The only obscenity is in that of the viewer, or in the case, Humbert.
What was more exciting for me was Gall was one of the judges of the competition.
I wanted to create something abstract, like an optical illusion of sorts. It is almost challenging the audience on what they can see, and bringing them into the psyche of Humbert and what he can see from simple, innocent things.
It took a long while to get out of the stereotype of crowning the girl as a siren. I started breaking down photographs and graphics into the simplest of shapes and colors. The more closeup, the more abstract, the simpler, perhaps the more effective.
I came out with this graphic and sent it to some close friends to test it out. No one got it. Some of them saw many different things, some even said picket fences. I don't know how that happened. I then proceeded to send them the cover again with the title and author's name. Everything became very clear, although some still took a while. That for me, is already a success. You label it as what Humbert had label her, and it creates an insight into his world and how he saw things and interpreted them.
Vintage/Anchor Books' vice president and art director, and designer of the latest cover of Lolita, John Gall, kindly agreed to review the submissions and picked his own top choices. His favorite is by Suzene:
”It takes a second before you see what is going on. It’s abstract enough to keep it metaphorical, yet literal enough to imply a sense of story. I love the tease of having the type run up the leg. Elegant, with a sense of humor.”
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