In Cold Blood - Typography

The font used for the movie title in the poster is probably Didoni URW D Normal designed by Phil Martin.



(Didn't have the actual typeface on my laptop so took screenshots of it online then put it together in illustrator)



I wasn't too sure which typeface to use in my designs therefore I made it easy for myself and limited myself to Vignelli's 5 typefaces

Bodoni

• easily recognizable Romantic typeface
• vertical stress
• slight serif bracketing
• cupped top serifs on b,h,l, not parallel to baseline in some versions
• top & bottom serifs on C
• vertical tail of Q
• small upper bowl of g
• usually no middle serif on w
• large ball terminal of c

Helvetica

• Late 1950’s, 
• the most neutral typeface based on ‘Akzidenz Grotesk’ typeface. 
• Large x height, 
• large counters in ‘O, Q and C’ 
• two-storied a (with curves of bowl and of stem)
• narrow t and f
• square-looking s
• bracketed top serif of 1
• rounded off square tail of R

Times

• 1932
•  created for the times newspaper
•  used ‘monotype plantin 113’ as a basis
•  Used for a classic yet practical look 
• combines legibility with economy
•  Used regularly in books and newspapers
•  Not very suitable for on screen use

Garamond

• 1530
•  French renaissance punch cutter Claude Garamond
•  Features large counters in a and e
•  Often associated with elegance and readability 
• Suitable for a range of jobs.

Century

• 1896 
• specifically designed to print century magazine
• extremely readable typeface 
• each letter form exaggerates the characteristics of each letter to make them look as different as possible therefore making it easier and quicker to read.

 Futura

• 1927
•  Paul Renner.
• All strokes made in a single line
• geometric
•  basic
• no ornamentation
• the ‘O’ is a perfect circle 
• the ‘j’ has no curve. 

Typographic treatment 

To make the book title more interesting I played around with the composition of the words. I wanted to make the author name and book title one object. I chose to experiment in futura as it's pretty neutral and the stems of the letters are long therefore easy to play around with and latch on to other letters.

In Cold Blood - Imagery

To come up with ideas for imagery I made a mind map.


The idea that stuck out the most to me was the cherry pie idea, Nancy Clutter (the daughter of the family) taught one of the girls in the village how to make a cherry pie the day before she died.

I wanted to combine this idea of cherries/ a cherry pie with blood to combine the idea of murder and innocence.



I experimented with paintings and drawings in illustrator however I wanted to make them look bore realistic therefore opted to take actual photographs.

To create these images I used cherries, a cherry pie and red food colouring to represent blood.









I crushed 4 cherries to represent the 4 family members


I also wanted to play around with the idea that 'In Cold Blood' was first printed in the New York Times. I took a newspaper article and cut out words from it that relate to the book.



I then cut out the title of the book.

In Cold Blood - 10 adjectives

- chilling

- unbelievable

- heartbreaking

- mournful

- gloomy

- somber

- brutal

- grim

- distressing

- upsetting

In Cold Blood, Book Themes

The murder and trial had garnered big headlines, and many readers probably knew the details of the novel before they began reading it. Capote had to make it interesting even to people who knew the outcome--the book had to be good literature as well as be informative and accurate. The novel is saturated with details that would never have been included in a newspaper. Moreover, the details are carefully picked. Knowing that Capote compiled 8,000 pages of research, the book seems to be a very carefully edited selection of facts and descriptions. For example, very little is said about the two older Clutter daughters, although Capote doubtless interviewed them. He left them out for artistic reasons. This shows that the facts of the Clutter case were the building blocks for what was ultimately a creative work.

Themes:

The American Dream.
Herb Clutter has made a wonderful life for himself however it is destroyed when two criminals try to steal his money but end up murdering his whole family when the plan goes wrong. This shows that the american dream is fragile and can only function without criminals. 

Rural America.
The farm house is right at the heart of Holcomb, where the murder took place, it is surrounded by open fields and is a family run farm. It is upsettingly ironic that shortly after  the murder of the Clutter family, their way of life should die too. 

Religion.
The church is the centre of everyones spiritual life as well as their social life. Herb Clutter, as well as the other villagers living in Holcomb have strong beliefs that catholics should not marry methodists, this can be seen when Mr Clutter warns his daughter that she cannot marry her catholic boyfriend. 

Men and Masculinity. 
Set in 1959 it is obvious traditional views of a mans role in society will be present, there are certain ways a man should be and Herb Clutter is a perfect example of a well respected man. He doesn't drink, he works hard to provide for his family and he goes to church. Dick Hickock (one of the murderers) on the other hand is believed to fight too much and have too much sex to be respectable. 

Women and Femininity.
The women of Holcomb at this time were constrained to their gender stereotypes. They were expected to be home makers and mothers. However Bonnie Clutter doesn't conform to this as she is too ill to provide for her family and be the mother and the wife she is expected to be. 

Family.
Seen in both the Clutters strong connection and the community they live in being one big family. Family are portrayed to be unbreakable and with them you can do anything, contrasting to this is Dick Hickock and Perry Smith who don't have a family therefore resort to crime. 

Study Task 01: In Cold Blood Author Research

Truman Capote pioneered the true genre of none fiction, 'In Cold Blood' is considered one of the first non fiction novels in the modern era.
He travelled to Kansas before the murderers were caught to write about the murders as the crime and the impact fascinated him. He interviewed many of the local residents and also the murderers, who he formed an unusual friendship with when they were eventually arrested (6 weeks after the murders happened).
It took him six years to write the novel which was an immediate hit when it was published in 1966, after reading it many people wondered if Capote's friendship with Smith and Hickock (the murderers) influenced the tone of the novel.

In cold blood, book cover analysis

- By S. Neil Fujita
- Known for this avant-garde style
- Trained as a painter
- Also well known for God Father book cover as well
Extract from an interview with Fujita about designing book covers:

" I liked working with authors because it's usually the author that sells the book. That's why I always wanted to have the author's name as big as the title... I showed Truman Capote my ideas for In Cold Blood. I thought of a red hatpin that I stuck into the title of the book to suggest death or something like that, but he didn't like the color. "It can't be red, because it wasn't a new death, it didn't just happen," so I changed the color to purple and added a black border to suggest something more funereal. Capote loved that."

- The cover represents death in a very subtle way. The only imagery present is the hat pin which reminded Fujita of death. To me it looks like both the combination of a drop of blood and a pin which is very clever as it suggests a painful death. Also the fact is is a hatpin refers to something that would be worn around/ close to the head which is where all victims of the murder were shot. There are no clues given away in this cover as the title is very self explanatory itself, the audience will be aware it is about a murder. Overall,  I like the bold use of typography and having this as the main focus as it leaves more to the imagination. I also like the use of this dark red/ purple as it represents dry/ old blood which is what Capote wanted Fujita to represent. 

Published in 1970, designed by David Pelham

The four bullet wounds on the front cover represent the four murders that happen in the book, each of the victims is shot once in the head. The cover sold really well. 

I think in terms of an idea, there is a good one there. However I think the design is a bit too crude and insensitive, it could've been done in a much subtler way. I also much prefer the colour use in the previous design as I think the bright red that is used here is too harsh, a much darker colour would've been nice. 

This cover was first published in 2013 by Modern Library. The front cover uses what looks like a newspaper clipping which pays reference to the fact that 'In Cold Blood' was first publishes as a newspaper article before Capote published it as a book. I think this front cover gives the book a new modern lease of life. The bright fresh colours are not what you would expect to find amongst crime novels therefore it stands out from the rest. The torn paper adds a sense of mystery that this title is part of a much bigger picture that the reader must find out about. 

The competition and judges

John Hamilton – Art Director, Penguin General

John attended the Glasgow School of Art and Design and specialized in illustration. He then became a junior book designer, and has continued on this path ever since.

John came to Penguin in 1997 as Penguin Art Director and was the driving force behind dropping the orange spines from the majority of Penguin fiction. He was also responsible, along with Jim Stoddart, for Penguin’s Seventieth Birthday Campaign, inviting seventy designers, artists and illustrators to create one cover each, designed within seven days for a flat fee of £70.

John is responsible for art-directing Penguin’s hardback imprints, Viking, Hamish Hamilton, Michael Joseph, Fig Tree and Penguin Ireland.

Joanna Prior – Managing Director, Penguin General Books

Joanna has had a guiding hand on Penguin’s design for many years. In her role as Marketing and Publicity Director of Penguin UK (until July 2009) she helped to position Penguin’s books for the marketplace through their cover design and through some innovative and award-winning marketing campaigns. For the past sixteen years she has also run Penguin’s art committee, which is responsible for the comprehensive collection of text-based art that adorns the meeting rooms and corridors of Penguin’s offices at 80 Strand. In her current role as Managing Director of Penguin General Books she is responsible for publishing the prize winners and bestsellers, including Nick Hornby, Zadie Smith, Antony Beevor, John le Carré and Colm Tóibín.

Jim Stoddart – Art Director, Penguin Press

After graduating in Sheffield, Jim took a placement at Bill Smith Studio in London, which turned into a job designing record and CD covers for such labels as EMI, Virgin, BMG, Mute and Trojan Records. Five years later he joined Penguin, where he worked as a cover designer for eighteen months, and then he went to work with Chris Ashworth under Lewis Blackwell at Getty Images for twelve months. In 2001 he returned to Penguin as Art Director of Penguin Press, where he has overseen the redesign and rebranding of Penguin Classics, Penguin Modern Classics and Pelican Books, as well as designing and art-directing covers for Penguin’s Allen Lane hardback imprint, the Particular Books imprint and Penguin non-fiction paperbacks.

What the judges are looking for

We are looking for a striking cover design that is well executed, has an imaginative concept and clearly places the book for its market. While all elements of the jacket need to work together as a cohesive whole, remember that the front cover must be effective on its own and be eye-catching within a crowded bookshop setting. It also needs to be able to work onscreen for digital retailers such as Amazon.

The winning design will need to:

• have an imaginative concept and original interpretation of the brief
• be competently executed with strong use of typography
• appeal to a contemporary readership
• show a good understanding of the marketplace
• have a point of difference from the many other book covers it is competing against

Copyright must be cleared for all images used in your cover design and you must include a credit line on the back cover of your design for any third party images used. For example: ‘Cover photograph by Joe Bloggs’.

The penguin blog:

6 things to think about when designing a book cover

Our cover designers Rosie Palmer and Lauren Walker share 6 essential things to think about when designing a book cover.

17/01/2017

1. Think about the target market and who you want to pick up the book as the cover needs to appeal to them.

2. What do you want to tell the buyer about the book. What kind of genre is it? What do the other books in that genre look like that it will compete with? 

3. You need to have read/have an understanding of what the book is about, so you can instantly visually communicate the story, characters, message, settings and ideas.

4. Make sure the title and author name are readable. 

5. Identify what the key symbols and motifs are that run throughout the book.

6. Try to create something that captures someone’s attention and makes a strong first impression, whether that’s through the tiny details, typography, choice of colour or imagery.

Study task 01: in cold blood, facts about the case & research

The case
- small village
-300/400 residents
- everyone knew each other
- no one locked their doors, very trusting community
- clutter family,active members of community. Well loved and known by everyone
- Killers entered the home through the front door
- The killed the family
- Tied them all up by their feet and their ankles apart from Nancy (the daughter)
- Herbet (the father) had his throat slit before being shot
- They were all killed by a single shot to the head
- Rouletters photography helped link a bloody footprint at the scene to Perry Smith (on of the killers)
- Perry Smith had been in and out of prison that's where he met Richard Hickok
- Smith and Hickock were told that the Clutters had a safe in the house containing lots of money
- Upon entering the house they confronted Herbet about the safe but he had no idea what they were talking about as there was no safe in the house.
- There was no cash in the house, they had travelled all this way for nothing. This angered them.
- The took a radio and some binoculars, and a few minor things they could find.

Looking at 'in cold blood definition'

What does it mean to be killed in cold blood?

> It is never morally acceptable to "murder someone in cold blood". The legal definition of murder is: "The killing of a human being by a sane person, with intent, malice aforethought and with no legal excuse or authority." Murdering "in cold blood" means to do so without remorse or feeling.

> In a purposely ruthless and unfeeling manner, as in The whole family was murdered in cold blood. This expression alludes to the notion that blood is the seat of emotion and is hot in passion and cold in calm. The term therefore means not "in the heat of passion," but "in a calculated, deliberate manner."

In Cold Blood, imagery inspo

'The village of Holcomb stands on the high wheat plains of western Kansas, a lonesome area that other Kansans call...'

The opening line of the book, where the murders took place. I did a quick google search of 'Holcomb,   Kansas' to find inspiration for imagery to use on my book cover. 



The first images I came across was their house, these was taken around the time the murders happened.

I the found some more recent photos. I just shows that now, over 50 years on this event really shook the village and remains one of the worse things to ever happen there. 




On the same page I found existing signs in and around Holcomb which I thought could work nicely as overlays in collages for my book cover imagery.



I really like the moody nature of this image and think the sign looks moody and isolated which would work well on the front cover of a crime novel.



I then found this image and thought the shapes of the signs could be nice to look at and use in some way.



Images of its location on a map were also on the page, I thought elements of the typography or the lines from this map could be useful.





 I also came across old news paper clippings and I will consider using elements of newspapers and this worn out, over printed effect for my front cover.

I also thought portraits of the family could be used/ the outlines to overlap and reference the family.







Google did also bring up things such as their coffins and crime scene photos, however I think they are bit too dark/ disrespectful to use on a front cover.

Study Task 01: In Cold Blood Research/ Book Overview

In Cold Blood is a non-fiction novel by American author Truman Capote, first published in 1966; it details the 1959 murders of four members of the Herbert Clutter family in the small farming community of Holcomb, Kansas.

It's one of America's most haunting crime stories: four members of a Kansas family brutally murdered on Nov. 15, 1959, at their rural farmhouse.

The slayings of the Clutters — chronicled in Truman Capote's book, "In Cold Blood" — have overshadowed the town of Holcomb for the past half century and the trial and execution of the culprits has brought little, if any, closure.

For many townsfolk, the wounds have been slow to heal partly because of Capote's critically acclaimed, nonfiction novel that spawned a new literary genre. The book has been reviled in its birthplace by residents because of its recreation of events that never happened and what they say is commercial exploitation of the victims. The subsequent movies have also been unpopular here.

"They made a tremendous amount of money off our great tragedy," said Bob Rupp, who as a teenager dated Nancy Clutter.

The horrific slayings of Herbert Clutter, a prominent farmer and community leader, and his wife, Bonnie Mae Fox, along with their children, 15-year-old Kenyon and 16-year-old Nancy, shattered the innocence of a generation accustomed to leaving their doors unlocked.

The hunt for their killers — parolees Dick Hickock and Perry Smith — mesmerized the nation, drawing journalists from across the country to this rural outpost on the Kansas prairie.

‘Major work of American literature’ Then when Capote's book hit the shelves, it forever linked the small town with a crime now known around the world.

The townspeople of Holcomb and other friends of the Clutters are deeply affected by the murders. This includes Nancy's best friend, Sue, and Nancy's boyfriend, Bobby. The townspeople perceived the Clutters as the family "least likely" in the world to be murdered. Unable to conceive that the killers were strangers, many of them become suspicious of everyone and anxious about their own safety in the company of their neighbors. The man who heads the murder investigation, Al Dewey, becomes obsessed with both the murderers and the Clutter family. His need to find the killers becomes his driving force in life.

QUESTIONS ABOUT BOOK: 

When was the Clutter family murdered?
Over fifty years ago, it was the scene of the brutal murder of Clutter, his wife Bonnie and their two children inspiring Truman Capote to write "In Cold Blood." HOLCOMB, Kan. — It's one of America's most haunting crime stories: four members of a Kansas family brutally murdered on Nov. 15, 1959, at their rural farmhouse.

Who was the killer in In Cold Blood?
Convicted of the crime were Perry Edward Smith and Richard Eugene Hickock, who were sent to the Kansas State Penitentiary. Soon after, the killers became the subjects of Truman Capote's non-fiction novel, In Cold Blood.

How old was Nancy Clutter?
Until her murder at age 16, Nancy Clutter was everyone's friend. And she was Bob Rupp's first love. But the young couple's romance ended in tragedy when Nancy, her parents and her 15-year-old brother were brutally murdered in their Holcomb farmhouse on Nov. 15, 1959.

Who really killed the Clutter family?

Alvin Dewey, chief investigator of the Clutter family murders, testified at the trial that Hickock insisted in his confession that Smith performed all the killings; Smith, however, first claimed Hickock killed the women but later claimed to have shot them himself.

Who is the speaker in the book In Cold Blood?

Capote wrote In Cold Blood as a literary experiment. He wanted to write a "nonfiction novel." He felt that he was one of the rare creative people who actually took journalism seriously.

overall evaluation

Throughout the first brief I learnt a lot about subjectivity and objectivity within graphic design. Previously it hadn’t been something I had looked at or paid attention to, it was always something done subconsciously. However, now I have done more research into it I see that graphic design can be both subjective and objective dependent on the brief. Some briefs require us to follow rules and guidelines for example if we were designing a wayfinding system which featured an emergency exit. The emergency exit would have to be clear and readable by everyone so that evacuation could proceed without any slip ups therefore would have to follow certain guidelines. This would be objective. On the other hand, something that allows us to have more freedom and allows us to add our own creative flair would be subjective as it has been manipulated by our own feelings and opinions. I also learn a lot about wayfinding in this brief and realised how oblivious to how much effort goes into creating a wayfinding system I had been. There are lots of little elements to consider such as the location, the colours, the legibility, the typeface and much more. I also found it interesting to find out that wayfinding systems aren’t placed at eyelevel because in busy places they need to be seen easily therefore they are placed above head height so that there are no obstructions. This is something I will always remember and store in my memory for future reference. However, as my wayfinding system was more of a novelty and was designed to be interactive, I placed it lower.

As for the second brief I enjoyed the fact it was concentrated onto a single object, in my case a cassette tape, I liked taking quite a basic item and trying to make it engaging. The list of task we had to do in relation to the object helped bring out all the possibilities that this one object could give. As all of the tasks varied from taking photos to working on excel it made enjoyable and different to the work done previously for wayfinding. I think both briefs have helped me become more experimental, the study tasks have taught me ways of producing lots of quick outcomes which I will definitely do more of in the future. For the second brief I enjoyed looking at layout and creating something which wasn’t only going to be on screen but something that was transformed into a physical product. I think this is something I will bare in mind for the future, creating actual printed publications, and not just designing for screen, when possible. I think it adds more of a challenge because you have to account for colours changing and add in bleed marks before printing which  will benefit my future design process. If I ever had to make a digital copy of something that was then going to go into production, I would know what things to take into consideration and have a better understanding of this process.