The Allegory of the Cave by Plato is a dialogue between Plato's brother Glaucon and his mentor Socrates. He describes a group of prisoners who have been chained in a cave their entire lives, facing a wall with only shadows to watch. They mistake these shadows for reality until one of them is freed and sees the outside world. He realizes that the shadows are just a poor representation of reality. The freed prisoner then returns to the cave to share his newfound knowledge but is met with resistance from the others who refuse to believe him. The allegory highlights the importance of education, philosophy, and the power of perception in shaping our understanding of reality.

When engaging in the project, I began by creating three different design approaches. The first method featured only text, breaking the dialogue apart. The separation was due to Socrates's lengthy dialogue compared to his student, and the typographic palette resembles manuscripts. The cover includes a green gradient to depict the sunlight described in the story. The sun is an essential element and represents the ultimate truth and knowledge. 

The second design utilizes text and images to describe the story. In the spreads and on the cover, there is a border around the photos to express prisoners trapped in a cave and a feeling of confinement. 

The previous approaches ultimately led to the final edition of the book, which depicts the story through images and minimal text. In this design, the first half of the book displays the prisoners' ignorance through-composed and manipulated images, while the second half reflects the enlightenment of the escaped prisoner. The pixelization of the image describes the self-discovery achieved by breaking free from the confines of limited perspectives and exploring the world beyond what is immediately apparent. The photos are paired with selected phrases from the passage to hint at the meaning.