Using the rule of thirds was my first grid system, which was reflective of the book cover I found most appealing during the research stages. This way I could focus the title of the book in the middle of the cover page and the author’s name above in a smaller typeface so that attention is drawn towards the title more.
For this first design I also decided that after receiving advice from peers, it would be appropriate to create a cover focusing primarily on the type and colours. In this case, the use of red on white was a simple approach. The idea behind the colour scheme was to create a way of modernising the original cover, as the colours used here are the same as the original. This means that any readers who may have read the book when it was first published may recognise the style of the cover as a nostalgic feature.
In terms of the font used for the first cover, I felt that Garamond would be the best to use as it was well received by peers during critique for its formality.
My second approach was to use the Marber grid system, as it was used frequently for many of the existing Penguin books. As the book is supposed to be read as a novel, I thought it would be appropriate to attempt an approach this way.
By keeping the colour scheme minimal, I was able to create a more structured and original approach to this cover. By choosing to leave the grid in the cover was also intentional, as it would show a traditional method used by Penguin, being re-used in a modernised way. The use of Bodoni 72 was also well received by peers during critique sessions, as it felt more appropriate than using a font that resembled typewriter lettering.
The third idea was to create the layout in the style of a newspaper, similar to The New York Times. This would be reflective of the newspaper article in which the murder case was originally printed. For this book cover, I began by studying the layout and formations used in The New York Times and The New Yorker. This way I was able to construct an initial idea that could be improved on when presented in the next critique session. I also used the font Cheltenham, which is used by The New York Times.
Many of the features of this book cover were inspired by the first two ideas. For example, the text on the front page shows the title to be the largest and most legible to the viewer. It also makes use of lines to structure the text in way that represents a newspaper. As the second cover idea was well received for its lack of colour, I felt it would be necessary at this stage to carry on using a limitation of colours.
One idea that came to mind when creating this piece was how the viewer would perceive the imagery. By presenting the viewer with the faces of the killers on the front it would almost act as a way to ‘name and shame’ the perpetrators, while the back page would shock the viewer to see the smiling family that were murdered in such a brutal crime. This issue with this approach was that the images could not be used for copyright reasons.
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