Penguin - Initial Idea

 

This is the first possible idea for the front cover. A white back ground was chosen because of the visually crowded shelves one can see in bookstores. 

Although there was no non fiction in the bookstore, there was a shelf on crime fiction which is similar to the narrative of In Cold Blood. The onslaught of colour and large bold typefaces, which are supposedly meant to draw the readers attention fail to give the reader focus when all together. The plain white back ground of the mockup is meant to stand out from the visually chaotic shelf. 

Even the Penguin books in the fiction section don't necessarily grab the readers attention. They themselves follow a similar style in that the books author and title takes up majority of the cover design followed by a photograph contextualising the narrative. This can work negatively as seen in the cover for Jean Rhys Wide Sargassa Sea. The detailed photograph underneath reduces legibility of the display type which doesn't grab the readers attention. 

The sailfish is a reference to the sailfish Perry caught out in the ocean of the Mexican coast. This represented a high point in their lives. They've committed a murder and seemed like to be getting away with it. Perry took a picture with the prize and he looked like he arrived in the promise land. However they ran out of money and had to return back to America, this marked their downfall. Hence the blood draining from the dead cut up sailfish. 

Breaking the sailfish's anatomy into parts as well as the uneven straight fins, are meant to create an uneasy, ominous feeling to the reader. The X was added to explicitly tell it is dead, which added a slight depth to the vector graphic and completed the overall composition. The pool of blood is represented by a broad darker red (following the criticism Fujita received) brushstroke that contrasts appropriately to the artistic style of the sailfish.

The typefaces in both mock ups were specifically chosen to unnerve and reflect the atmosphere of the novel. The irregularities in stoke width, irregular capitalisation of the letters, large counters and thin stems achieve this. Furthermore the choice for unorthodox typefaces create a visual oddity that hopefully will break away from the sans serif type publishers tend to use to shout their book titles at the reader.

Truman Capote's name has been reduced drastically from previous penguin covers. This is so the readers eye flows down from title, graphic then author.