Book Jacket Series

Gothic Horror

Typography
Graphic Design
Editorial Design
Rachel Baptista
Design a unified three-volume jacket series for Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, and Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera using typography as the primary expressive and structural element.
Three classic novels standing upright side by side: 'The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde' by Robert Louis Stevenson with a red cover, 'The Phantom of the Opera' by Gaston Leroux with a white cover, and 'Frankenstein' with a black cover and red text.
The Brief

Overview

This project redesigns three seminal gothic horror masterpieces—Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, and Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera—into a cohesive, typography-driven book jacket series. Relying strictly on type as image, spatial tension, and layout systems rather than pictorial illustration, the collection translates literary themes of psychological fragmentation, duality, and bodily transformation into an expressive visual architecture. The system balances bold, experimental display typography on the covers with disciplined, reader-first editorial mechanics across the spine and jacket flaps.

Stack of three classic novels, with Frankenstein by Mary Shelley standing upright on top of The Phantom of the Opera by Leroux and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by Stevenson, all with distinctive cover designs.
Strategy

Visual System

  • Color System: A rotating palette of ink black, crimson red, and off-white that establishes visual hierarchy and differentiates each title while unifying the collection.
  • Display Typography: Fragmented, scale-driven letterforms and mixed type styles across front covers to reflect themes of bodily assembly, duality, and concealment.
  • Editorial & Spines: Standardized alignment and publisher markings across spines for shelf cohesion, paired with disciplined, readable text formatting on flaps and secondary panels.
Final

Book Jacket Design

The final interface proves that less is not a void. It is a room with the windows open.

Stack of three classic novels, with Frankenstein by Mary Shelley standing upright on top of The Phantom of the Opera by Leroux and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by Stevenson, all with distinctive cover designs.
Three classic novels standing upright side by side: 'The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde' by Robert Louis Stevenson with a red cover, 'The Phantom of the Opera' by Gaston Leroux with a white cover, and 'Frankenstein' with a black cover and red text.
Three books standing upright on a white surface: on the left, a closed red book titled 'The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde' by Robert Louis Stevenson; in the center, a closed white book titled 'The Phantom of the Opera' by Robert Stevenson; on the right, an open book revealing a black inside cover page with text about Mary Shelley.

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