{Note:  This is a project assigned and completed for educational purposes and I am in no way affiliated with A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, its publisher, or author.}

Tool: Photoshop

We were tasked with redesigning the cover for one of our favorite novels.  Here are a few current book covers of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn for reference:

This novel is a coming-of-age story written in 1943 by Betty Smith.  The book explores many themes (such as love, family, work, music, tenement housing, alcoholism, literature) through the eyes of an impoverished immigrant family making their way in early 1900’s Brooklyn.  The main character is 11 year-old Francie Nolan who, by the end of the book, has become a 17 year-old young woman on her way to college.

I started with an 8×12 inch file and used print settings (CMKY, 300 ppi).  I envisioned an oak tree trunk on the spine, with its branches reaching around to the front and back covers.  I added leaves with the brush tool and scattered them in hues of green, and then again in oranges.  Francie is the tree growing in Brooklyn.  She is growing to be strong despite everything thrown at her.  So due to the nature of the plot, I wanted to keep the focus on the strong trunk and have opaque leaves.

I placed a silhouette of Francie looking up at the strong “tree” she will become by the end of the novel.  I placed the title in the spaces suggested by the branches.  The tagline is the award medal on the cover.  I used a free image of the iconic Brooklyn Bridge.  For effect, I changed a few settings in Levels and also Curves until it looked like a 1900’s dated photograph.  I used a layer mask to wash it out further.

I changed the fill of the birds, which represent Francie and her younger brother Neeley spreading their wings in a great big world.  I used a clipping mask of the bridge behind the publisher’s name, and gave it a stroke to help with dimension and legibility.