Created for the 2018 Penguin Student Design Competition, my goal was to get away from the ubiquitous pig imagery typically seen on covers for this title. Instead, my final submission to the competition features a brightly colored and glossy glue bottle which alludes to a grim plot point in the book while also feeling slick, plasticky, and mass-produced, as the farm becomes an assembly line of production based on the pigs whims and to the detriment of the other animals.
I created additional cover designs to explore the range of themes in the story. The first uses ransom note style lettering connoting how the animals’ revolution is stolen from them and held hostage to the corrupt pigs’ power struggle. The second features a hand-stamped cover and a deliberately chaotic layout to connote the animals’ fevered chanting of “Four legs good, two legs bad!” and how this unthinking fanaticism plays a part in the eventual crumbling of their revolution.