Iris Book:
still cover and
promotional animation
OBJECTIVE
To create an original book cover accompanied by a looping animated version for social media promotion.
YEAR
Junior
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Iris: How the Plants I Grew Up with Changed the Way I See the World is the memoir of an Alabama native on how as he grew up, his childhood fascination with the beauty of flowers turned into increasing knowledge of Alabama’s biodiversity and ecology, in turn heavily shaping his worldview. The cover and animation were created by layering sheets of tracing paper, each with a few different iris illustrations, abstract interpretations of an iris, or hand lettered “iris” words. The sheets were arranged in several sequences and compositions, allowing each element to shift, recede, and interact with surrounding features in a variety of ways.
The configuration that prominently featured a particularly colorful “iris” word was chosen as the cover, and the simply handled Helvetica type was arranged around and drew its colors from the preexisting composition. In the video, compositions flit one after another in stop-motion fashion, with the cover text flashing on and off a few times, until they resolve into the still cover. The sequence pauses before slipping back into shuffly chaos, and each loop is set to thunderstorm ambience and the sound of turning pages. The finishing touch is a subtle TV grain overlay.
Promotional cover animation