T.S. ELIOT- ALBUM COVER

For this project, I really wanted to work on a poem because I personally enjoy them more than novels. I ended up choosing “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot. I took inspiration for the cover of the album from the comic adaptation illustrated by Julian Peters. I wanted to keep the same one-point perspective of a street for my version of the poem, as lines 1-11 say: “Let us go then, you and I, / When the evening is spread out against the sky/ like a patient etherized upon a table;/ Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,/The muttering retreats/ Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels/ And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells.”

Going line from line, as mentioned I wanted to make it a one-point perspective of a street as it looks like the sun is coming down and it looks slightly deserted as the trees don't even have leaves. I added a hotel sign to the tallest building to represent the cheap hotels mentioned. In line 12 it says “Let us make our visit,” so I added a silhouette of two people holding hands to represent that. I tried to research how signs looked in the time period of the 1900s, and I also kept the composition black and white with a grainy texture to sort of show it is a representation of something older. I figured since the poem is titled “The Love Song,” I would make the poem into a vinyl record as if it was actually a song to be listened to in a record player, as it also pays homage to the time period. 

Typography was also important to me as I wanted to keep it sophisticated. I chose a serif typeface in combination with a calligraphic style for the title. I wanted to make it feel like it was done by hand but also the feeling of love is often associated with calligraphic type or cursive type. The poem is an emotional monologue whose speaker relays the anxieties and preoccupations of his inner life. As the theme of anxiety is present, there is a reason for the lines coming off of the title onto the actual vinyl. When I think about anxiety, I think of the twisting overwhelming thoughts so I wanted the twisting line the person can follow if they were to actually be able to pick up this record and play it.