Book Covers Redesigned

After looking back at the book cover designs I had done perviously I realised that they are too ambitious and don't relate directly to the book titles therefore I decided to simplify them and make them a bit more explicit. I have kept the same grid in use, the reverse/ upside down version of the marker grid. I also used the same typeface as I had done previously, gill sans, as this is the one originally used for penguin book covers. I also used the same shade of green in the background which is the same one used for original penguin crime books. I think it is nice using elements used to design penguin book covers initially as it pay homage to the history of penguin books. I have also chose to only capitalise the first letter of the book title as this was another original design feature of the penguin books.




For this book, death of a stray cat I wanted to create something explicit yet not too violent. I decided to go for a simple design of a cat silhouette and a person holding a knife to suggest the cat is going to get killed.  I chose to repeat the image of the cat on that back cover to show the cat walking away to play on the fact 'cats have nine lives', even if it was put in danger it would be able to walk away.



For the second book, or be he dead, I wanted to create something explicit again like the previous book cover. I decided to change the murder weapon, this time it is a gun as I didnt want it to be too similar to the previous design. The silhouette of the cat has also been replaces by the silhouette of a man to refer to the 'he' in the book title.  The image on the back cover of this book is a larger version of this gun as I think it drills in this idea of murder/ death.



The third book has a much more ambiguous title as it doesn't refer to murder or any type crime therefore the imagery was hard to create. I focused on the idea of a circuit and how in physics there are often symbols used in a 'circuit' diagram. I then chose to repeat this symbol on the back cover to emphasise it.






The inside flap of the book cover creates a timeline of Romeck Marber's life which all joins together to make one long timeline. I think this helps to unify the books as a series as they all have a section of them that connects together.


On reflection I decided to break the blocks of green up with some white as I found the book covers  a bit bland. The colour scheme still corresponds with that of the original penguin crime books too.







Here you can see the time line put together as they would be if someone was to collect them.