New Book Cover – “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time”

The original cover of “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” by Mark Haddon seems to appear very simple but I see it to be much more. At first glance, there does not seem much of a wow factor present however, after some analysis the possible significances are quite visible. There seems to be much emphasis on the dog by making it stand out in black, placing it upside down, and in the middle of the cover. I think that the reasoning behind this is to symbolize the dogs passing since black is the colour of mourning and him being upside down represents the after life in most cultures. The simplistic cover demonstrates a use of minimalism to draw our attention with bright colours and leave us wondering what this book beholds within. The use of bright red is a statement colour to draw the audience into the reading the book by withholding most information of this very detailed piece of literature. The simplistic appeal leads our minds to gain interest in the book due to our human nature of curiosity and analysis, which guides us into wondering whether the book is truly dull or if it is really withholding valuable information.

With my updated design of the cover, I chose to take a slightly different appeal towards grasping the attention of the audience. I decided to unveil some more information onto the cover but without context. By this I mean that I chose symbols that represent meaningful ideas in the story, but they can also be interpreted in numerous ways to someone who has not yet read the book. I chose to once again emphasize the dog by placing a paw in the center. However, I chose to make it gold to represent the higher value of a dog shown in this book. I have also decided to make majority of the background an image of math equations to show the protagonist’s love and appreciation for math which can also be taken as an example of his straightforward mindset and depth in comprehension. This book covered many topics however, they were mostly based around the toxic result of dishonesty. So, in this cover I added images of parents arguing and the son being affected in a negative form. This is a little symbol for a big part of this book and with reading it, it is easy to observe many examples of their dishonest actions effecting their overall personalities and possible patterns of negative behavior. As a final touch, I decided to add a rising animation to add that emphasis and to show all those pieces and symbols combine into one to create this powerful story.