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Book Design / Editorial / Image-making · 2025

Literary Voice

An editorial response to Silent Spring

Silent Spring — front cover and spine, digital mockup.
Silent Spring — front cover and spine, digital mockup.

Overview

An editorial design project based on Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring. I explored how layout, image-making and a restrained colour palette could express environmental damage, silence and fragility, translating the text into a calm yet unsettling visual tone.

Project
Editorial design project · 2025
Role
Book cover design, typography, image-making and layout.

Colour and atmosphere

These illustration studies explore the same flowering branch against two different colour fields. The olive background creates a denser atmosphere, while the pale blue and cream version introduces more light and texture.

Olive ground / botanical composition study.
Olive ground / botanical composition study.
Blue and cream / colour and texture study.
Blue and cream / colour and texture study.
Bird silhouette, botanical linework and layered colour.
Bird silhouette, botanical linework and layered colour.

Image-making

Line, texture and fragility

A bird silhouette, fine botanical linework and loose colour fields form a contrasting illustration study. The open composition gives the fragile subject more space, adding another visual register to the project.

The cover as a whole

A prominent serif title anchors the composition, while botanical forms and textured colour connect the front cover, spine and back. The quieter back cover leaves room for the quotation and gives the imagery space to breathe.

Front cover, spine and back cover shown together in a digital mockup.
Front cover, spine and back cover shown together in a digital mockup.
The book in perspective — digital mockup.
The book in perspective — digital mockup.

Based on Silent Spring by Rachel Carson. Book cover and editorial design: Xiyuan Bai. This page presents illustration studies and digital book mockups.