Penguin Book Covers, Collages

Taking photos for the front covers. As I am doing 3 penguin crime books I need images that look mysterious and interesting. I selected these three images that I took as I like the natural side of them as they cant be manipulated you just have to wait for the right moment. I then edited them into black and white as I found this more fitting with the penguin crime books designed by Romek Marber and it also makes them look more atmospheric. 

 

I then cut up each one of these images to create a collage for each of my book covers, I remembered reading an article on how Romek Marber used unfinished circles to add mystery to his collages for the covers he created therefore I used this idea in my own collages. These designs are being created for the book 'closed circuit' as it juxtaposes the book title. You would imagine something 'complete' when you hear the title yet the elements of the collage are incomplete.

Here is the final collage I chose to use, I think it has order to it yet has enough distortion to work well. I like the background as it helps to add another dimension to it rather than it just being white therefore I chose to keep some of the background visible on the front of the book cover.















Here is the collage I created for 'Or be he dead' I cut up the strips of the photograph in diagonal lines to look like a the edges of blades to add a unsettling feel to the college. I arranged this on my cutting mat as I liked the dark background as it accentuates the harshness of the white space more. 

I found the name 'death of stray cat' rather unusual for a penguin crime book, because of this I wanted to create a collage that looked odd to reflect the unusual nature of the book title. I decided to cut up parts of the picture in squares and re arrange them in a different order to create a subtle disruption.