This is my entry into the 2017 Random House Student Design Award. After reading the book and looking at existing designs, I decided to address the strong theme of racial segregation that runs through the novel. To portray this, I made the spread predominantly white leading to the front cover being divided between white and black. As a metaphor for the two characters who rise above the racism and treat white and black people equally, Atticus Finch and Tom Robinson, I illustrated a Mockingbird feather that has been pinned down. The Mockingbird represents innocence but the innocent characters are both trapped, Tom Robinson literally in jail and Atticus in a trail he cannot win. Rather than using the full bird, I used a feather as it hints that the bird is in distress or injured. The pin shows that they are confined by the town and its inhabitants beliefs. The rough texture throughout represents the great depression which had a huge effect on Maycomb, the town the novel was set in.
