The brief was to create a book cover for three different poems written by Helen Lamb. A collaborative project with photography student Rozee Colton, where we acted as art directors and came up with the concepts for the photographer to work with. I gave each book a typographic identity to what I thought the mood of the poem was. Each book cover shares the same layouts but just has a slightly different twist to each, making them a working collection.
First Cover: I Swallowed Your Name
I swallowed your name
it had to be done
first- sealed behind lips
and held on my tongue
hard-edged consonants
round pill of vowels
you didn’t go down easily
small talk was impossible
with your name lodged
dangerously in my throat
I gagged on the syllables
my eyeballs bulged
it could have been fatal
but I held on till
even the thought of you dissolved
but I held on till
even the thought of you dissolved
into the rhythm of my breath
you’re trapped there still
a telltale sigh
caught between the rise and fall
caught between the rise and fall
but softly so
it almost passes for silence
it almost passes for silence
Second Cover: Mid-Summer Night Riff
When darkness hid
Below the bed
Dad sat late at the piano
Below the bed
Dad sat late at the piano
Ignoring drowsy neighbours
Restless child above
The silken hours winding
The silken hours winding
Into fragile midnight
Everything he knew
Was in the present riff
Heavy on the bass
Fast and sweet on the roll
His left foot pounding through it all
Was in the present riff
Heavy on the bass
Fast and sweet on the roll
His left foot pounding through it all
Until the deep, blue thud
Became the heartbeat of the house
Third Cover: So Thin
She said - You want space?
He said - We used to be
so thin and intense
made love and devoured
slabs of bread
ripe golden cheese
in the velvet hour
before the dawn.
She said - Space?
We’d be lost in it.
He said - Honesty then.
She said - I used to be
so very thin
never had to question.
never had to question.
I knew you in my bones
.
He said - The thing is
you're fatter now.
