AMERICAN PSYCHO (Bret Easton Ellis):
ALTERNATIVE COVER
School assignment: Make an alternative cover for an American Classic.
I based this work on the work of Saul Bass, in combination with my own influences obviously. I tried to bring the concept and story of the book forward with a pretty self-explanatory illustration (an axe x a tie) representing the yuppie that is Patrick Bateman during the day, and the psycho killer he is at night.
As I said, my work is roughly based on Saul Bass. Working with big pieces of shattered glass - like shape's perfectly fit the axe-feel of the cover. Also the shapes en colors represent the insanity that is going in Patrick's head. Besides that the colors also represent different things; the blue('s) represent the suit's yuppie's wear during the day. The red obviously represent the blood and horror during the night. These 2 color scheme's create an eye-catching contrast.
De typo is also made to fit the style and vibe of the book. I tried to make it work with the rest of the cover by also shattering the different letters, giving it a broken look.
I made a lot of different versions, and different color scheme's before picking this one.
Here's a few.
After making this we got a feedback and the chance to change de cover, based on this feedback. The feedback was good, but I still have some work to do.
