The Cover
The front cover utilises a chaotic hand rendered brush style in bright red to connote a realistic sense of murder and blood. This correlates with the genre of the book and provides a striking aspect which would engage an audience who was to see the design on a shelf. To keep the classic side of the novel prevalent, a serif font was utilised, maintaining a traditional undertone amongst the other contemporary treatments. Since the book details the murders in 1959, I chose to reflect this through this classic implementation. At the bottom of the cover is the scene of the crime, the Clutter Family's house where the murder took place. Since I had used a hand rendered element, this realistic image brings the composition to life, demonstrating the non-fiction side. The colour white has a stark contrast to the colours red and black, also relating to stains on clean furniture within the Clutter's house. Amongst this are the two black nooses, black connoting a sense of dread and darkness, whilst the nooses refer to the execution of Eugene Hickock and Perry Edward Smith, the killers. One noose being larger than the other gives depth and perspective to the design.
The Back
The back contains the same hand rendered treatment to the front however in black. Black again conveys darkness and death. It provides a background that the blurb can easily be read on, also allowing the details of the Penguin template to stand out, whilst remaining consistent to the rest of the composition. The text is tilted slightly to communicate a sense of disarray and also discomfort, again aligning with the nature of the book, where multiple family members are killed and their house ransacked.
The Spine
The spine is kept simple, as to not distract from the focal points on the cover, keeping in line with the black back design and using the same typeface for consistency. The white still stands out well against the rich black background, providing an easily read spine.
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