Chuck Close is an American artist known for his large-scale photorealistic and abstract portrait paintings. He suffered from health complications that caused him to develop new techniques in his work, preventing him from painting like how he once did before. The design of the interior pages and book cover are representative of the artist.
Immense
Grid
Portraits
Considering Chuck Close works on such a large scale, this very important aspect of his artistry had to be reflected in the book cover. Adding a poster component to an otherwise basic jacket sleeve for this book was an opportunity to convey the grandness of his artwork. The jacket unfolds to a self portrait of Chuck Close at a larger scale that could not be represented in the book. Creating a simple layout to allow the most attention for the artwork was focused.
The technique and size of his artwork were the aspects that I wanted to emphasize. Developing the jacket sleeve to be a poster was an idea that came to me while trying to find a way to show his artwork at the largest size possible given the size of the book. I wanted to make a unique book design and let his artwork take the spotlight.
