Harry Potter: The Redesign

as someone who has designed many book covers, i find them interesting-very cleanly executed—but they seem to be more of an art school project rather than a serious attempt at a redesign. i’ve never been impressed with ‘in the style of’ designs—i’d rather see a well-supported original design concept—and they’re not really evocative of the tone and substance of the writing of the books themselves.

As a graphic designer with 20 years print experience and 13 years art director experience, AND a Harry Potter fan, I think these covers are captivating and fresh. Anyone who reads the books will identify with the imagery. The appeal of these covers to older readers is precisely what the books need. I want a box set.

While these are a self directed project (he also did Lemeny Snicket) they are wonderfully executed and the common knowlege that is Harry Potter allows artists and designers the ability to play with imagery around it the same way they would with Shakespeare.

Obviously these are (sadly) never going to be produced, HarperCollins holds the rights, but they were interesting enough for me to add to the site.

The covers would be completely unfit for the current market but as art on their own apeing a different time and style they’re wonderful!

Thanks for commenting!

I have to say I love them, they spark memories in me of old covers for the Narnia books and The Hobbit to me from a non desighner perspective they have a mix of Russian and Aztec feel to them which for me reminds me of the the already existing mythology that the Harry Potter books use.

Thanks everyone for the comments, its nice to hear what people like or dislike about what I do, constructive criticism is quite helpful.

This is just a for-my-own-pleasure project, to try my hand at the Penguin style so I don’t ever imagine that these would be actually published. But it would be cool if by some odd chance they were.

Thanks for the support.

I love them, they’re like an arthaus-ification of a mainstream blockbuster series, yaaaaaaaay - I can definitely feel the ‘lemony snicket’ vibes (which isn’t a bad thing)
Inferi scare me, but the ‘Half-blood Prince’ cover looks amazing - I like the collaboration of photo, digital art and drawn art.
I’m not sure about the ‘Deathly Hallows’ cover though - it annoys me when films/book covers conflict with what i see in my head when i’m reading, and to me that scene wasn’t like that.
Having said that, its clever in that its giving away the ending without actually giving anything away

They look like the kind of covers that might appeal to adults who are embarrassed to buy a kid’s book, and read said kid’s book on the train.

Can I get an a4 size copy of them, it would be perfect as a gift for a friend of mine as a house warming present. She’d love them

I think you should heckle the guy who made these to get them published in some form, I reccomend visiting his site (Morgan linked to it in the top of this post) and see some more of the awesome work he has done.

These are good. They remind me of a guy who’s done a similar thing with video games - designed covers in the style of penguin classics of yesteryear:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ollym/3205194188/in/set-72157612646893506/

C’est magnigfique, non?