ABOUT
The Lady knows the stories: how her eyes induce madness in men.
The Lady knows she will be wed to the Scottish brute, who does not leave his warrior ways behind when he comes to the marriage bed.
The Lady knows his hostile, suspicious court will be a game of strategy, requiring all of her wiles and hidden witchcraft to survive.
But the Lady does not know her husband has occult secrets of his own. She does not know that prophecy girds him like armor. She does not know that her magic is greater and more dangerous, and that it will threaten the order of the world.
She does not know this yet. But she will.
Description via Bookshop.org
DESIGN CONCEPT
For this design I took inspiration from the main character, Roscille, watching her slowly drowning into Lady MacBeth. When we meet her she is coming from a foreign land to marry MacBeth.
After saying goodbye to her handmaiden, and being surrounded by the constant sounds of the sea, she quickly realizes this is nothing like her old home—which she is not likely to see again. In both her homeland, and her new land, she feels isolated and shunned because it has been said she is a witch who can drive men mad with her eyes. Because her father perpetuated this rumor, she has had to wear a veil at all times, and must continue to in her new home.
MacBeth uses her as an advisor of sorts, but never gives her credit. As his conquests, guided by Lady Macbeth, grow he becomes increasingly paranoid, as well as territorial. She begins to feel isolated, alone and a bit mad.
As he becomes increasingly controlling, our Lady starts to spiral into madness. Eventually she creates a plan using learned secrets of the castle, and her ability to ensorcell men, to try and gain her freedom.
Above is the first draft, where her eye and the sea were chosen as main points of visual symbolism. I chose the eye because of her ability to ensorcell men with her eyes. The sea is a constant non-verbal character, mentioned, and looming. Not only the setting, but the sounds haunt our main character when she arrives and as they slowly become normal, they morph into a way to measure her current level of madness.
The ideas here combine to show that she is drowning in her surroundings and losing herself to madness. The tones of blue, which are the only colors used, add to the water/drowning effect.
The typefaces hint at the classic nature of the novel, and the modern layout of the title and details signals there is more happening than the classic story told.
Below is the final design, which was also used on the outside of this PDF.
The back cover features a phrase fitting to be the last phrase you see in the story. I chose to add the phrase to the back rather than leave the textured background to both emphasize her story, and this line in the novel.
The spine states this book is a novel, who the book was written by and the title. There is also a little eye toward the bottom as a part of the eye symbolism, but it also acts as a placeholder for a publisher to place their logo.
The front cover is an intense, close-up image of an eye that slowly fades into waves of the sea. Symbolic of her drowning in her new title as Lady MacBeth, and her growing madness as she spends more time there. Her eyes are what creates her power and her isolation, so while it is the source of her lonliness, it’s also the gift of possible power.
