OUGD406 - Studio Brief 01 - Experiments

In the development of initial ideas, experiments in terms of colour, imagery and process were explored. These experiments look at the use of semi-transparent colour overlaid on top of imagery taken at the crime scene during investigation of the Clutter family murder. For these ideas and inspiration was taken from research into the Marber Grid and Classic Penguin Crime books, which use a similar aesthetic. These traditional book designs make use of a green colour, representational of the crime genre. Since In Cold Blood is based on a true crime, it was decided to experiment with this colour. Other experiments made use of an orange colour overlaid onto the same image of the path leading up to the Clutter family home, since it was discovered that this orange colour also has links to other classic Penguin book designs.

A similar aesthetic can be seen in this experiment, whereby the classic green colour has been limited to a shape. This shape comes from the boot print of one of the killers found at the crime scene. It was considered that this shape can also be representational of a blood spatter, reflecting the blood spilt at the scene and the green overlay of colour representing the colour of their blood in relation to the traditional colour for Penguin crime books.

Experimentation was also conducted through the use of more handmade processes to produce imagery. These experiments show exploration with contemporary hand-cut collage. These use two images taken from the scene of the crime at the time of investigation, one of the path leading up to the Clutter family home and one of the killers themselves. It was decided to cut circles through these images in order to represent one of the items stolen during the crime, which was a pair of binoculars. These circles represent the two eye holes found on binoculars, as well as representing the eyes of Hickock and Smith on the Clutter family in preparing for the crime. In these design experiments, the circles have also been flipped. This produces an interesting effect in manipulating the image and has been done so in order to represent how the Clutter family's lives were flipped upside down and the negative impacts their murder would have had on other family members, friends and the general community of their hometown of Holcomb, Kansas.