Finishing The Big Sleep

I have completed my task of getting my book cover design for this year's penguin/puffin awards done. I don't think it is portfolio worthy since what I submitted was rushed and I didn't experiment enough in emulating the effect of the stain glass look, until I create a revised version where more texture is on certain details and lighting/tone is used cohesively I won't put it in my portfolio, The use of fonts also haven't been experimented on. Overall the composition and the whole look of it in general is satisfactory and shows what I originally intended, I do hope the judges like it and instead of seeing it as a finished design they see it for the possibilities it can become.

Dissecting the elements you can see I use a typewriter font to evoke a sense of the time the book is set, Marlowe's hat is another signifier. The stain glass and the image of Marlowe catching Carmen is (to me) extremely iconic when you ignore the usual cliche's of the private eye image. I chose this image as a subject because it's one of those moments in the story where your attitude towards it changes by the end of the book. I had to make a decorative pattern but the shapes had to represent something, A chessboard is too obvious and looks repetitive so I chose orchids and made it look like a jungle, a metaphor for LA is a steamy jungle like the green house where Marlowe meets his first client. The tone of the cover the use of black spots corrupting the colours and the idea of Phillip Marlowe being this illuminated figure like the old knights on the stain glass windows was inspired by this qoute I found printed behind another Phillip Marlowe Novel.

The majority of the cover was done in photoshop, images were scanned for the purpose of texture, this included pencil shading, smudges and acrylic paint brush strokes on paper. My only regret is that I wish I had done more stuff so capture the stain glass look since I know photoshop air brushes is not the only way to go about it.