A Discovery of Witches — Jacket Redesign
I recently read A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness and after diving into a world full of witches, daemons, vampires, and Oxford, I was eager to play around with a jacket redesign that spoke to themes and elements contained in the story like ancient parchment, Greek Mythology, hunting, animalistic natures, and alchemy.
There were a ton of elements of the original jacket design that I really enjoyed, but I wanted to include more of a direct focus on Diana in my version. The book also frequently noted that Diana's namesake was none other than the goddess Diana the huntress and Diana's own powers seemed, at times, otherworldly, which is why I decided to show an old painting of Diana the goddess (from Diana the Huntress, oil on canvas by an anonymous artist of the school of Fontainebleau, c. 1550; in the Louvre, Paris) on the cover.
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This particular rendering of Diana that I have included was carefully chosen as she is in the nude. I wanted to show this version of Diana as she is strong-willed, sexual, and independent, all underlying traits of the protagonist in A Discovery of Witches and even themes of the book itself. ​​
I also felt it import to use old depictions and references since A Discovery of Witches discussed age, ancient texts, and historic events regularly. This is also why I decided to add in a bleeding parchment effect to the background. It coincided nicely with the addition of the alchemical symbols, which I incorporated due to Diana's research with alchemy. It was also why I made gold a focal point of the cover.
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​Diana's relationship to Matthew Clairmont, a vampire, is often cast as that of predator/prey , which I found interesting in the context of her namesake being the goddess of the hunt.
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Lastly, I chose a blue overlay for its evocation of the night sky as a reference to the book's dealings with mysticism, magic, and the unknown — all things associated with darkness.
