For my initial ideas I made a few sketches. I initially drew from the fact that Rudyard Kipling wrote Just So Stories to read to his daughter at bedtime. I wanted to aim the book at parents who read to their children. I thought of a mobile with animals attached to represent the animals in the story and the child’s room. I also thought of an image or silhouette of a man reading to his child and magical animals floating from the book. I realised though that if this would be aimed at adults reading to their child this isn’t the direction to take. For this audience a more illustrated colourfully designed cover would fit better for this.

Wild animal silhouettes hanging from a vintage chandelier (illustration)

I then thought of a collage style as I like how many of the collage books look from my research. I liked how the How to love a Jamaican seemed to encorporate different colours, patterns and textures. I thought of doing a similar style but with animal patterns and textures from the book. To see what it would look like, I decided to look for the animal colours and skins featured in the book. I then quickly imported them into a collage, adding a wear and tear effect for more texture. However, I found that the colours were quite muted and I struggled to make it look bold and appealing in this practice.

I then thought of a floral look, which is very popular in the current book market, and will appeal to an adult audience. I thought of the title being central on the page with leaves and greenery surrounding it and animals blending into the flowers, similar to the titles of Dancing with the Tiger and The Keeper of Lost Things. I also found an example of text with leaves protruding from it which would make for a very effective typographic cover.