This week in my Graphic Design II class, we’re working on making book covers for a biography of a person of our choice. The catch is that the cover can’t show a simple portrait of the person; their characteristics (or well known attributes) have to be reduced as much as possible.

We started by making 12 thumbnails of different iconic people and then choosing one from that group to develop further. There were some people that were obvious choices, like Abraham Lincoln, that people would know just by seeing the beard and hat. The challenge was to choose someone that wasn’t as obvious, but still make the icon recognizable.

After a lot of Google searches, I finally found someone that I was actually interested in, and could make a really nice cover with – Cleopatra. I looked at many different reference photos, and was able to create something that I think is easily recognizable, and that I’m really proud of!

Here’s the (almost) finished product: