Perfume Book Cover Illustration

An illustrated book cover design for the Penguin Book Awards, please read the following extract from the book “Perfume”.

“Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, born with a superior olfactory sense, creates the world’s finest perfume. His work, however, takes a dark turn as he searches for the ultimate scent.”

For the background of the cover I created a vibrant, soft blanket of roses, capturing the flowing petals an element of the perfumes, which “Jean- Baptiste” yearned for. These are not painted with every detail as I wished to show them as a flash of beauty, overwhelmed when looking at, smelling the real flowers.

The main focus in the whole book, therefore a strong element of the cover, but if you look at the top of the design there are hanging figures with an akward, unnerving positioned. They are semi transparent to show as the girls in the book were discreetly murdered for their scents. I wished to communicate the mystery and unnerving nature of the novel as well as the beautiful scents, which flow through the novel.

The design if layout and text is simple and the message in the illustration is not distracted by it. Acrylic paints, brown paper, Photoshop and Illustrator were used to produce this cover.