Committed
Service
Book Cover Illustration
Committed is a self-initiated cover concept inspired by Elizabeth Gilbert. ‘Committed’ is the sequel to the hit that is ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ and after reading the two, I set about designing my own variation of the cover. The cover reflects themes of travel as well as an emotional journey toward commitment.
After reading Committed, I felt compelled to translate the vivid imagery and emotional depth of the book into a visual form.
While the story unfolds across multiple countries and cultures, its true focus is the emotional journey to marriage happening alongside the physical one.
The final cover design reflects this duality, capturing both the sense of travel, which draws many readers to this series in the first place, and the emotional journey to commitment and marriage.
Concept Development
Early exploration focused on the idea of journeying, both literal and internal. I settled on a tropical, exotic foreground to frame the scene, referencing Bali, one of the book's most pivotal locations. The composition is divided into three visual sections, a beginning at the U.S. border, a middle defined by movement and travel, and ending that subtly alludes to marriage.
The final design is a culmination of elements from the initial roughs. The inclusion of a rickety old bus one might book for cheap long distance overland journeys (as any good backpacker will know) and a plane symbolizing the crossing oceans reflects the complex and fragmented nature of the authors journey.
The shifting landscape reflects many places the couple pass through and the home they make for themselves.
The chapel represents the inevitable conclusion for the story, not as a focal event, but as the final destination of a much larger spiritual and emotional journey.
Colour and movement guide the eye down the page, mirroring the pace of the narrative and the constant change of location throughout the book.