This first idea uses an image taken from the crime scene, depicting the road which led up to the Clutter family's home. This has been used duplicated across both the front, back and spine of the cover to convey mystery and intention. The elements of colour have been positioned in a similar format to that of the Marber grid, which Romek Marber designed specifically for Penguin Classic Crime books. It uses a similar shade of green taken from these original books and has been overlayed on top of the image. This makes the idea a bit more playful, whilst keeping links to it's genre and a wider context.
This idea uses an image of the Clutter family at the time of the crime, including Herb Clutter, his wife and children. The picture extends through to both the front and back cover with the spine interrupting the middle, representing the interruption Hickcock and Smith caused in the small town of Holcomb and the broken lives of the Clutter family. It uses elements of green in a similar format to the Marber grid, representing the traditional colour for Penguin classic crime books and Romek Marber who did a lot of work for this series of Penguin books. The use of type is consistent with the earliest book cover for In Cold Blood, with Bodoni's high contrasting elements representing the extremity of the crime.
This cover takes on the idea of overlaying Hickock and Smith’s eyes over the spine of the book. This has been done as a point of difference and to draw you into picking up the book so that the eyes of intent stop staring at you. The image repeated on the front and back cover is a boot print recovered from the crime scene which ultimately led to the arrest of Hickock and Smith. It has also been used to convey the blood split at the crime scene, in that the shape of the print could be interpreted as a blood drop. A green stripe has also been placed through the middle of the book design to add a small element of colour which makes the design more playful. This can be seen to represent the path of intent of Hickock and Smith in the robbery and murder of the Clutter family.
This idea uses an element in the story which describes the telephone lines as being cut. The type has been placed over this telephone pole to suggest disruption to the line. The image spreads out over the spine and continues onto the back cover. This has been done to further represent the disruption, as when the book is closed the telephone line is slightly bent to represent this interruption. However, this idea may work better if the line extends the opposite way, from the front cover onto the back and avoiding the spine.
The idea for this book cover was to detach both Hickock and Smith from their prisoner numbers to show how their numbers can act as another part of their personalities, whilst also representing Smith’s split personality and delusions of grandeur. Spreading the images across the cover meant that their eyes were placed over the spine. It is said that you can tell a lot about a person from their eyes and so these have been used on the spine to draw people into picking up the book when placed on a shelf and adds an element of 'thrill' or mystery to the cover. It also highlights some of their distinctive features, such as Hickock’s slightly disfigured head resulting from an automobile accident which makes them distinguishable as the criminals.
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