Redesigning the cover to Jane Eyre, written by Charlotte Brontë, was a hassel to consider. The original cover for this particular copy was a paperback from Barnes and Noble with a painting by  Edgar Degas as the main art. However, I felt that it did not truly capture how the protagonist, the book’s namesake, actually looked. In the novel, Jane was described as “plain with an elfin look” by the love interest in the book, Mr. Rochester, elfin being considered as “small and delicate, typically with an attractively mischievous or strange charm.” This description was then added upon by describing Jane with green eyes, hazel hair, pale in complexion, and being petite and thin.

Taking the above information, as well as considering  when the novel was published, I created a faux version  of what would have been bound in the late Georgian/Regency era. Typically, books were bound in leather then polished in wax. To mimic the shininess of that waxed leather, I designed a cover that had the intricate areas to be covered with foil, which adds a unique shine. Then, I switched this copy to a hardcover book to improve the book’s stability.

This cover was created for a colleague who is writing a novel now. This is a dual-perspective novel, a woman from the present who recently has become widowed is one perspective and the other is the perspective of a couple from the past that once lived in the house the widowed woman now lives in. 

When discussing how Miss Linda Sue Hammond wanted the cover to look, we went back and forth on the title as well as the cover art. It was established that a key, specifically a skeleton key, was to be used in some manner. However, we debated on several ideals for that: a key by itself, in a hand, or in a door. Upon further discussion, it was decided that the image present, from the Unsplash website, was the perfect image for this mockup of the novel.