Book Cover Sketches

 

original book cover

I haven’t really been reading a lot of novels lately, most of the books I read these days are non fiction books about product design or technology. Luckily I I recently re-read one of my all time favorites The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams. I was very excited to work on this cause the title alone gave me so many ideas. I also definitely think this is going to be a challenge because I've come to really love the original cover. It might not be very flashy but its what I think of when I imagine this book and all of my memories from it.

   

 

I explored a bunch of ideas that played off that title. The actual restaurant they are referring to in the book is called Miliways, and that name always reminded me of a diner even though in the book Miliways is portrayed as a 5 star dining experience. So I kinda played with this restaurant idea, maybe there is a breakfast plate but in the coffee you see the stars and galaxies and on the back cover there is a “Miliways” receipt . Maybe it’s a fastfood restaurant and someone carelessly left the take-out bag on the hood of the car as they hurdle through space. I think the fact that these clearly go against the 5 star restaurant in the actual book fits right in with Douglas Adams style of comedy. 

The next few ideas I tried to get a bit more experimental. I tried thinking of other concepts of the book. One idea is that their robot Marvin ends up working as a valet for the restaurant for a million years (there’s a bit of time travel in the book as well). Another concept is that the title suggests that the end of the universe is a destination, but the restaurant is actual at a point in time where the universe comes to an end. In the book they are always saying “the OTHER end of the universe.”  

I think an idea that captures this “end of the universe” idea is this waiter who is uncovering a serving tray and a great beam of light is coming out from underneath. I think the waiter could possibly be done in a way that captures the Gestalt principle of closure. Maybe the tuxedo is black and there is negative space on this white shirt or the tray. 

That gave me an idea for a cut out on the cover so when you turn that first page its this epic picture of space with an explosion of light. So in this exploration I thought maybe there is a bowl of pasta and instead of meatballs you see these stars in space and when you open to the first page you see a space scene. I think this also is a play on closure how the eye perceive the meatballs in the context of the spaghetti but they are actually just cut outs.   

The last Gestalt principal I wanted to play around with is the idea of similarity. I tried this idea where maybe there are a few neat rows of meatballs or some kind of desert, but one of them is a galaxy or planet. I think this simple humor could be really effective for this book cover.