The Invisible Man was something I was a bit apprehensive about designing a cover for, but as with the Time Machine having features which tied the book covers together made it easier for me to approach the design.

I knew I needed something to have as a central shape, and something to have as a background pattern. Having not read the book before I spent yesterday morning reading the story in the hope of finding ideas for the design as I read. The problem with invisible man, is that he’s invisible which means asides from things he puts on i.e. the infamous hat, sunglasses, bandages, he’s indistinguishable. So I felt like my choice of central shape was limited to those objects, I chose the hat because I hadn’t seen a cover design with just the hat in the center. I’d seen lots of designs feather a bandaged head, hat and glasses though!

As I read through the story I was taken by the mention of glass bottles filled with strange liquids, and his chemistry lab set up – in his hope to find a cure. It occurred to me that I could draw little bottles filled with liquid and a line of smoke/bubbles and if simply done these could make a pattern for the background.

First design for The Invisible Man

Close up of the design

So that’s where I’m at – I’m thinking of a green for the liquid and smoke from the bottles and black outlines for everything else.