Task

The Jules Verne classic 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea has undergone many different design treatments, from florid sci-fi colouring with expressive typography, to a much cooler palette, organisation and layout in the original French. Write some illustrated notes about the visual impact of each of these four designs. (You’ll be able to view the designs more clearly by looking them up on www.bridgemaneducation.com.)
If you walked into a bookshop with no idea what the book was about, what impression would each of these covers give you? Which cover would be most likely to make you pick up the book, and why?
Check the date of each image and try to speculate about the historical, political or social context for each one. (Don’t spend long on this but it’s important to realise that creative design doesn’t happen in a vacuum.)
What approach would you take to the cover design if you were asked to design a new edition today? Make some thumbnail sketches. You don’t have to work these up into a more finished design – unless you want to!

Below are photos of pages from my original logbook that are now in Sketchlog 1 (or 2??) sent for assessment.

1984

20,000 Leagues under the Sea