Blade Runner (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?) by Philip K. Dick (Aleph, 2019)
Androides sonham com ovelhas elétricas? book cover with illustration by Rafael Coutinho.
Book jacket for a Portuguese translation of Blade Runner (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?) published by Aleph Editions, Brazil.
The idea behind this design was to introduce Philip K. Dick to a new audience, people who never heard about the author but knew Ridley Scott’s movie adaptation from 1982. The title appears as Blade Runner on the front, but the real title (in its Portuguese translation) is shown on the back.
Rafael Coutinho’s illustration can be revealed in steps: first, we see this woman with strange eyes; she may be interpreted as an android by her lack of expression. On the back, we see a man with a tender expression holding a smoking gun. When the jacket is totally open we get to see the whole scene: the man has just shot the woman/android.
Daniel Lameira, the art director, asked for a noir feeling to the title. So I chose Binner for its dramatic look. Although there are digital versions of Binner, for this cover, I used a vintage specimen to compose the titles and added a shadow to the letterforms. There’s some noise and imperfections wich I find charming and could connect to this dystopian-retro-future world.
The main reference for the type was 1970s record covers as Aretha Franklin’s Master Of Eyes and Gilberto Gil’s Refazenda (wich was designed by Rogério Duarte).
The synopsis and the author bio on the inner flaps is set in Chalet Book.
