Design for Perfume book cover

The story of perfume is about Grenouille, born in 18th Century France and abandoned in a pile of rotting fish. As he grew up he discovered that he had a gift, an incredible sense of smell, he had the ability to differentiate between different kinds of wood, milk etc, he could smell for great distances, through walls and glass and could tell every ingredient in every perfume.

For this cover I chose the scene when Grenouille smells the first scent he falls in love with which he cannot help but chase, find out what it is, take in every detail up close and possess it. The image is from his point of view so rather than using realistic colours, I altered colours and increased saturation just to show how intense the dirty streets of Paris affected him. I used a lot of layering of buildings to illustrate how complex his world would seem to us, being able to see with the sense of smell, through objects in front and all around us.

The red spiral and red ribbon-like textures on the front cover lead us into the middle of the image where you may not or may just make out a white female figure. As Grenouille has never smelt such a beautiful virgin before this moment, he has no idea what it could be, which is why you too may be confused and wondering what it could be that is leading you into this central object.