In the book The Uninhabitable Earth There is frequent mentions and even a whole section on the Climate Kaleidoscope. The explanation of this was ‘We can be mesmerised by the threat directly in front of us without ever perceiving it clearly’
This became the source of my inspiration when designing the covers. This was because I couldn’t go too literal, especially when the title is so literal, but also making a depressing cover won’t draw people in to read it. So I decided to go more abstract.
I started by taking old prints of mine of different techniques, lino, photopolymer and dry point, and cutting them up into triangles all of the same size. A lot of these prints were portraits, but not all. But I thought that was interesting because this is a human made problem, we try and be ignorant of that as a society. I then created a collage of these triangles to create a kaleidoscopic effect.
I then took the pattern, and then started to digitally manipulate it to make it into a repetitive mirrored pattern to make it look more kaleidoscopic.
This became the basis for my first cover design. I experimented with different typography designs but I didn’t find anything of use or good. Until I exported the background in the right dimesions and drew directly on it digitally in procreate.
I used handwritten text, due to the fact this is a human made problem, we are the ones who are making the world uninhabitable.