A cover for Liu Cixin's novel without the planets and spacecraft most editions use. It is built from two fields: a dark grid for human science, and a pale mass of lines for the forces it cannot measure. The title starts in the grid and loses its shape as it crosses into the mass.

Existing editions

Before sketching I looked at four published editions. Most of them rely on space imagery: planets, a figure against the sky, glowing spheres.

Chinese edition

Tor, US

Korean edition

Head of Zeus, UK

Three directions

Pencil sketches in three directions. At the first critique the grid and loops sketch got a heart, and the red pen wrote "Typographic" across the board. I took that as the direction.

Gravity

Letters pulled into orbit around three bodies.

Human fragility

Eyes and small figures against the size of the universe.

Order and tension

A grid pushed aside by a mass of loops. This is the one I developed.

First critique, on the class board

Order and chaos

The dark field carries a 20 px grid at 7% opacity, and the grid only exists where order holds. The pale mass crosses the grid without following it. Letters that enter the mass turn dark and blur, but only partly, so the title still reads at 150 px wide.

The lines inside the mass came from a Processing sketch written with AI help, tuned against two references I collected.

Reference

Reference

Output of the Processing sketch

Layout test for the sketch

Critique and rounds

From late October to mid November I tried navy, olive and pale grounds before going back to black, and the mass went from hand-drawn loops to fine lines.

28 October

1 November

3 November

3 November

9 November

16 November, final

Color critique

At the color critique the navy versions got the stars. The author's name was circled as too small, and a sticky note from a classmate suggested making the letters slightly blurred where they enter the mass, as if the chaos lines were breaking them up. That note became the title treatment on every version after it.

Last critique

At the last critique a # mark at the bottom corner and a stray shape at the bottom edge were circled. I removed both and moved my name above the title.

Final cover

Front cover

Mockup, from a stock template

Type: Eurostile Extended Black. Grid: 20 px module, 0.5 pt lines at 7% opacity. Color: #080808 and #E4E4DC, no third color. Tools: Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign and Processing.