Designing the book cover for Nothing by Janne Teller was a rare experience in that the book was rich in visual elements and metaphors all fit to be on the cover. To add to the fun, you have the strong title which entices towards minimalism. This is a dark Scandinavian novel told through the eyes of a 14 old. The naïve view of the kids, the Nordic simplicity, the existential depression and the outright terror all featured in the initial ideas. Usually I scramble to get to one visual direction but here the difficulty was in choosing one of the many ways possible. The sterile, clean image of the tree separated from all, floating in the white nothing worked best and it was met with good reception. Initially it felt like I am not being clever enough and it felt like all of my ideas had to give way to something less but now I am happy that they all were just the necessary build to a cover that is one of my favourites.
