After reading the book , the obvious religious aspects got me thinking about how I could suggest this in my book cover. I recently visited the Yorkshire sculpture park and bought this set of postcards with each a medieval illuminated letter. I realised that a great route to go down might be the flat pattern like illustration of biblical and manuscript illustration and illumination.
A very strong theme in these designs is the botanical, often in an incredibly symmetrical way. Everything on the page interacts with one another, as if it were actually sitting on the page. It seems flat design, was not something exclusive to the digital age.
There is also a lot of very whimsical imagery that takes you by surprise. Bizarre shapes and animals glare at you out of the page and merge with the decoration the create something slightly unnerving.
There is heavy use of gold throughout all of these designs. of course, this was intended to bring gravitas and grandure to the words of God, which were written here. However, it will be difficult for me to use god in my design because the submission is digital and scanning something that reflective would detract from the design rather than add to it. It would also cost a great deal to reproduce, which wouldn't work in its favour.
The text around the illuminated letters is interesting too. There is a great contrast in stroke weight from horizontal to vertical. this is of course down to the wide quills they would have use to create the letters. This could be something I play on in the lettering of my design, perhaps modernising it slightly to stop the visual link to this era over powering the message of the piece.
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