Ways Of Seeing

These are a set of book covers I created for one of my final projects at uni. They are for John Berger's Ways of Seeing. Ways of Seeing is a book which challenges the reader to think more carefully about why images make them think in a specific way. It looks at how the way we see and read images has changed due to the camera and mass reproduction, plus the effect that advertising has had on western society.

One of the key points Berger makes in the book is that advertising masks a lack of real democratic choice. Brands often create a number of products, such as a perfume, which are marketed in different ways so that consumers feel as if they have a choice between which perfume they wish to buy; in reality the perfume is essentially the same and is made by the same brand, so the choice is false. People define themselves, not by making political choices, but by what they buy. Creating a number of different covers for the book would reflect this idea, as it would give the customer a choice of which cover they like the best, but really what is inside is exactly the same.

Each cover portrays a different theory that Berger proposes in the book. The covers link together through warped perspectives (representing the way that the camera changed people's perspective of images) to form one long image. This long image is what would actually be wrapped around the book as a dust jacket. By folding it in a certain way, you can choose which cover actually shows on the front of the book.