Created for the Penguin Book Cover competition. The brief was to create a new book cover for the well known crime fiction 'The Big Sleep' by Raymond Chandler. After exploring all the key themes and symbols within the story I decide to base my idea on the complex maze of characters, plots and betrayal. With no clear route or escape the characters all possess an underlying secrets and decite. Symbolic also for the time in which the Story is set, a time of desperation and cynisism due to the economic turmoil of th Great Depression. Using the black leak on the front cover is to portray the oil fields and its responsibility for many of the murders and financial debates.
Below is my initial design. A conceptual idea taken from a quote I found in reviews. ' It is a fallen world where glamorous appearances mask sordid deeds and everyone is a grifter ' Therefore I created a mask to show the glamour and wealth many of the characters possess. Using a die cut to reveal the hidden 'deeds'.
