ALL THE LIGHT WE
CANNOT SEE

BOOK COVER

For this typography assignment, we were challenged to create a book cover and promotional poster out of non-digital type. I chose to design a new cover for “All the Light We Cannot See” by Anthony Doerr, a story of a blind girl from Paris and a German boy who come together despite their opposing sides during WWII. Throughout the war, they both find hope through listening to a professor on the radio teach about light. “What do we call visible light? We call it color. But the electromagnetic spectrum runs to zero in one direction and infinity in the other, so really children, mathematically, all of light is invisible.”

For the non-digital type, I wanted to explore shadows and how they can represent this idea of an unseen light source. I cut the letters out of paper, folded them up, cast light against them to make the shadows, and photographed each word. After the words were compiled and edited together, I designed the rest of the cover with an image of the Paris skyline.

The poster features the same cut out letters with an image of an explosion shining through as well as a quote from the professor.