OUGD603 - Penguin Student Design Award (Norwegian Wood) - Final Design (To Submission Guidelines)

The concept behind this final design was to explore the themes of mental illness within the book since this is something of importance and a theme which the story rotates around. The idea was based on a part of the story where each time Naoko requested her roommate Reiko to play 'Norwegian Wood' (her favourite song) on guitar, she had to place 100 yen into a glass jar. The idea was to place a forest setting within this glass jar, literally putting the song itself into the jar, whilst also reflecting the scenery which surrounds Naoko's sanatorium in which she stays when her mental health worsens, as well as signifying Naoko's bottled feelings and feelings of being alone or trapped by her illness. This illustration shows an open jar, with the lid propped up against it and two birds flying out of the forest within the jar. This was done to symbolise Naoko's freedom from her illness after her death, as well as a direct link to the lyrics of 'Norwegian Wood' in 'this bird has flown'. The idea of having two birds rather than one also came from a key scene at the start of the book where Watanabe is remembering Naoko and pictures a scene of two birds flying out of the forest, something which foreshadowed the ending of the story in Naoko's death.

A similar scene has also been placed at the bottom of the back cover in representing an environment outside of the jar and the idea of freedom. This piece of imagery was also utilised in order to create an element of consistency between the front and back covers, and making this more playful rather than using just text. The spine also features a silhouette of a bird, like on the front cover, in order to give it an interesting element that would potentially help it stand out on a typical bookshelf with the spine facing outwards.

The design takes on a more illustrative approach, using an aesthetic style inspired by the Pop Art Movement which was present during the 1960's, the same time in which the book is set. This design style was used therefore to present a link between the design style and the settings of the book that would accurately convey parts of the narrative. It was considered that this use of style would also create simplistic, but bold imagery that would help give the design a point of difference from other entries.

The red and white colour scheme, whilst continuing to link to colour schemes present in the Pop Art Movement, this was utilised in order to reflect the underlying political aspect of the book, with the colours red and white symbolising Japan's flag of the rising sun, which was risen every morning at Watanabe's university accommodation in the story.