I choose to design a book cover for Until I find you by John Irving.

I tells the story of Jack searching for his father - starting in Jack´s early childhood till his thirties. Since Jack´s mother is a tattoo artist and his father is a heavily tattooed musician the book tells a lot about tattoos and tattoo culture. 

I selected an audience which is interested in tattoos - the cover might be part of a series of books dealing with tattoos as main part of a story. A place where these books might be sold: at tattoo shops, libraries, or museum shops.

Here are some thumbnails:

Three layout sketches I came up with:

Thinking about incorporating tattoo designs I wanted to incorporate letters that are used for tattooing - swirly script letters. From the middle upwards I drew a church organ, since Jack´s father plays the organ. On top of the organ sits a roof of tattoo needles. The images on the sides reflect tattoos mentioned in the book or Jack´s search for his father. The pieces of notes are parts of the fathers tattoos described in detail - his whole body is covered in music.  

And here is a stripped down black and white version of the cover for use as a title page.

I want to work further on this project - creating endpapers, a clearer vector version of the cover and design chapter titles.