"Les Misérables" bookcover, illustration and layout

Bookcover, illustrations and layout as contemporary valencian reinterpretation of "Les Misérables".

TOPIC: MY REINTERPRETATION.
Decline. The state’s failure to protect vulnerable people. We tend to think that the situations depicted in "Les Misérables" are far removed from our own time. However, today’s Spain—or even Valencia—is far more precarious than we imagine. I have selected headlines on these topics that struck me as similar to situations faced by characters in the book and have illustrated them. Primarily, I have focused on drawing connections between the situations in the book and real-life ones where childhood or early youth is disrupted by capitalist society.

REFERENCES.
Fantine as a seamstress or a single mother working from home:
- Fantine is exploited to support her daughter, whom she has no time to see.
- The uncontracted seamstresses in the informal shoe industry in Elche (Alicante). They are supposedly housewives who work from home but have no time for their families due to labor exploitation. Despite this, they are responsible for caring for their children and the home.
Gavroche as young people unable to afford housing:
- Gavroche, a child who has to fend for himself, abandoned by the state (and who, moreover, dies during the story).
- A 21-year-old man died on the street in front of Valencia City Hall on December 11. This homeless person was covered in blankets, and his death was natural, likely caused by the cold. Unprotected, he died in front of the municipal institution that was maintaining extravagantly expensive Christmas decorations and lights.

STYLE.
A naive style, viewed through a child’s eyes at a world that cannot be idealized enough to seem friendly. A realism filtered through a child’s gaze, with forms simplified to a schematic style. The lines, which appear to be drawn in pencil, outline shapes painted with a crayon-like texture. The limited palette combines cool, dark colors—navy and violet—with warm oranges and earth tones, but adds bitter touches such as pistachio green.

This is a preview of a design that will not be published officially.