Inspiration from Lee Kuan Yew’s book covers

When I was first told to do a book cover for my grandfather, the first thing that came to my mind was the Lee Kuan Yew book covers that I had seen so often at home due to the fact that my parents had bought at least 3 copies of the same book and placed one of them in my room for some reason. Anyway, because my parents used plastic to cover the book, it kept sticking to my other books and falling out. Although frankly I have not read the book to this day, I always find the book covers for his books very interesting.

Although all his book covers are relatively simple, mostly with a single picture of him in the front. I liked how the cover gave him a certain air of superiority and made him look as important as he is. The cover was simple yet did it’s part. It is easy to recognize and the minute a Singaporean looked at it, he or she would immediately go “Oh it’s the Lee Kuan Yew book” regardless or whether he or she actually knew the title itself. This book “The Singapore Story, Memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew” is probably the most well known of his books and it shows Lee in a dress shirt, sitting in a black office chair. Although the picture gives him a superiority, it is contrasted by his gentle looking features, like that of any other grandfather.

I really liked the way the book cover portrayed him and felt that it really is a picture that meant a thousand words.

I wanted my grandfather’s book to be something similar to that. Although my grandfather may not be such an authoritative figure in Singapore, it is undoubted that if my family were Singapore, he would be the knowledgeable Lee Kuan Yew, always passing down more knowledge to his descendants. Although I attempted to try and do something similar for my grandfather’s book, I wasn’t able to do as well as the designers of the Lee Kuan Yew book partially because my grandfather did not have any pictures that were similar in the air of superiority to that of Lee Kuan Yew as his pictures were not professionally taken. and didn’t really have a similar setting.

I ended up using a photo similar to that of a passport sized photo. Hence the product did not turn out as well as I had wanted it to. I think that the glossy effect of the book when it was printed also plays an important part in the whole look of the book, hence I also feel that the book could have been printed in a glossy setting.

~ by jaylyn on September 28, 2009.