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.

Studio Brief 02 - Evaluation

Overall I am happy with the outcome from this project, if I had more time then there are a lot of adjustments I would make but overall I am pleased. My wayfinding system is mainly objective as it follows the rules of structure and layout associated with a traditional monopoly board, the colours and typeface was already chosen for me. My pictograms on the other hand juxtapose this and are much more subjective. They are designed by me and influenced by my feelings towards the certain places, they are representations of specific places through collage. The pictograms are very abstract and difficult to read however I think this contradicts nicely to the simple, universal design of monopoly. I wanted to contradict the things I had read and work I had looked at such as Otl Aicher’s pictograms for the Munich Olympics. I wanted to disregard a conventional grid and create something much more expressive. As much as I like this idea I don’t think the two clashing aesthetics work well together, at least not as well as I had hoped. If I had more time I would refine the pictograms and make them more readable and recognisable. Despite this I did use some of my research to influence the designs of my pictograms such as Hoffman’s idea on shape and the way in which the line works as the connecting link. This influenced my collages a lot as not only does it work as a connecting link in each of the individual collages it also helps to link the series as a whole. Frutiger’s ideas on the circle also stuck with me and subconsciously influenced my design, a lot of circles are used in my collages. 

In terms of colour I think the decision to go with the traditional monopoly colours was wise as they work well together and make the whole wayfinding system recognisable as monopoly related. I am grateful for the criticism I received in my crit when my designs were made from using brown paper as I think this diverted away too much from the monopoly idea and hearing my peers disagree with me made me realise that the monopoly theme needed to be more of a focus. As for the interactivity of the system I think this has worked as well as I had planned, the wayfinding system is fun and hands on yet is still functional. 

In relation to materials I wish I had been more adventurous, it would’ve been nice to construct my own peg board like the ones used by Pentagram for LCC and somehow worked my design around this. However in terms of time scale and limited resources I think my outcome is successful and I am happy with it. 

Penguin little black books

Penguin is such an iconic book brand known for its use of bright colours and iconic book covers. However the black classics collection is the complete opposite of this. They’ve completely toned things down, so much so that even the iconic yellow circle has been removed from its logo. What I like about this collection is how beautiful the books look despite being back and white, it really does go against the common quote not to judge a book by its cover because with these, not much is given away. The website is the main focus in this article and what a wonderful website it is. It combines the digital processes such as dragging your mouse to move around the page so well in combination with literature. Each book spine can be clicked on in order to view the book cover then developing on from that a quote from the book can be revealed. The website is very user friendly for those who either love literature who just want a simple list of the book titles. But also for those who love this interactive element that penguin has made available through their new website. Over all I think the design works well because it keeps an element of fun which is what you expect from the penguin brand. 

Barnbook Studio Clockwork Orange

Barnbrook is one of the most well-known creative studios in Britain. 

Our team of designers specialise in producing innovative books, corporate identities, CD covers, custom fonts, websites and magazines. Our clients range from international museums to charitable organisations. We have worked and won many awards in the area of motion graphics working for clients such as the BBC and Grey Advertising alongside producing self-initiated projects. Barnbrook also releases original fonts through VirusFonts that are used extensively worldwide. Our contribution to graphic design was recognised by a major exhibition at the Design Museum, London in 2007.

I like this rework of this clockwork orange book cover. The original cover is very bright and over powering yet the one designed by Barnbrook is the complete opposite. They have used simplicity to their advantage to make a completely different style of book cover. The word “Orange” has been missed out of the title and has instead being replaced by an orange circle. Barnbrook’s edition of the book “A Clockwork Orange” is design to capture a new audience, those who prefer modern books. A lot of people are put off by old book covers therefore this rework works well and will potentially attracting a new audience of younger readers. Originally published in 1962 this book cover has had many makeovers since then yet I think this one works exceptionally well. It doesn't reveal anything about the book therefore it leaves people curious as to what the sort is about. It’s a clever way of capturing the audience yet it could have a negative affect. Thos who don't like the mystery behind what a book is about, and those not familiar with “A Clockwork Orange” are likely to over look this design on a front cover. On a shelf amongst other books I don't think that this one would stand out due to it being too simple (which I never thought was possible). It has been reduced so much that it isn’t exciting enough to be a book cover. It would work well amongst a series of book where all the front covers would be equally as simple but I think alone it is too bland. 

Studio Brief 2: Final Crit

The work I took to my final crit
















Final Rational:

To produce a publication for an event at hyde park picture house that is celebrating the history of the cassette tape by showing 3 films which feature the cassette tape in.
My ideas was to create 3 posters for each of the films that are also cassette sleeves therefore paying homage to the cassette tape. I wanted all 3 posters/ sleeves to look similar and follow the same themes therefore I used the same layout, the same typeface and the same style of image to collage from. Each of the posters features the event time, date and location as well as featuring a track last for each of the films which again references the fact they are cassette tapes. Each of the cassettes inside the case has the film sound track on them. So that they has some sort of link to the film I created little icons for each of the films such as the arrow from the original back to the future poster typeface. I subtly added these into the design so that they still referenced the films but were my own design as well. I also created stickers for inside the cassette tape as cassette tapes used to always come with stickers so that you could label the A side and B side. For the A side and B side stickers I added some iconic quotes from the films. As well as these I created stickers of iconic objects from each films such as the car from back to the future.

The first piece of feedback I got was that it would work well as a ticket for the event instead of the poster. I thought this was a good idea because in reality it would cost a lot of money to produce posters like this just to give away for free. However, I imagine them being bought as more of a keep sake than handed out as a means of publicity. The people in my group thought that the design wasn’t too modern looking which they thought was a good thing as cassette tapes are a thing of the past. I was initially going to use card to print my designs on however this made them too thick and they wouldn’t fit in the cassette cases therefore I had to print them onto paper for my crit. To solve this I was considering condensing my design and having one flap instead of two like the image below, yet when I asked my crit group they thought using paper would be fine as it is protected by the cassette case. 

 

The other piece of positive feedback I got was that they all work well as a series which is what I was aiming to achieve. All of the crit groups I went to thought my idea was very refined and couldn't think of much criticism.  The one piece I did get which I agree with was to invert the stickers I had created for inside the cassette tapes and rather than having white backgrounds with black images/ text, having black backgrounds with white images/ text. I had been struggling to make the stickers fit in with the designs of the posters therefore this feedback made me realise what I had been doing wrong. Another minor issue was the fact that the cassette tape inside the case was not completely clear, it has a maxell acetate sheet inside it with bits of red on it which distracts from my design. The last bit of feedback I got was the films could be referenced more, for example taking a key colour from the original poster and adding it not my new design.