Samarkand Alt Book Cover Design

Omar Khayyam - a poet of whose work I try to read every night - is beautifully and fantastically fictionalized as a wandering eternal in Samarkand. Forming a love/ hate relationship with the founder of the mystical Assassins, and ending up on the Titanic a thousand years later, this is a road trip novel with poetic flair.

I used a halftone painting of Omar as the hero image - imposed on an ultra-textured interior view of a Samarkand mosque (AXP Photography). This traditional imagery is offset by the bold, futuristic sans that screams off of the neutral tones - I wanted to reflect the modernity the book steps into, and reflect the elusive quality of the poet with the difficult readability.

This makes me reflect on accessibility standards in print vs web - with physical media, the user has a near-infinite zoom level, texture contrasts to differentiate layers, and further context within the book that can be gained by turning it over.

I would love to hear if anyone has experience in both mediums and would like to comment on the difference!

Thanks,

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