Exercise 9 continued

Exercise 9: Choosing your imagery

For each of the following categories write around 100 words describing why you think the publishers adopted this particular design route for the book.

I did some research on the display of books in my local W H Smith bookstore and was allowed to take some pictures, see below:

An out-of-focus photograph – Shades of Murder by Ann Granger

Amazon Book Description:

In 1889 Cora Oakley died by inhaling a poisonous gas in her sleep, and her husband William was put on trial for her murder. Over a hundred years later, the only remaining members of the family are two elderly sisters who live in the ancestral home. Unable to maintain the mansion, the sisters decide to sell up and live off the proceeds. Then a young Polish man named Jan appears, claiming to be William Oakley's great-grandson and threatening to ruin the sisters' plans. When he is found dead, it seems that the shadow of murder has returned to haunt the Oakley family again, and Superintendent Markby must look back at the events of a century ago to find the killer... 

 

Comment:

This frontispiece captures the whole sinister look of a murder mystery story.  The colours blue and black, used in the picture, depict deep dark secrets whilst the out of focus picture of the mansion house give it a mysterious look.  The inclusion of shadows on the drive leads the eye into the picture and up the drive to the house where all the action takes place, both past and present.  The serif type font allows the eye to follow the words along more easily although it’s generally advised to use a sans serif font for headings; it has been ignored here quite effectively.  The gold/yellow colour (the opposite of blue in the colour spectrum) of the author’s name and book title make it stand out sufficiently well to catch the eye where it would be placed in a shelf of a bookstore.

An inverted photograph

I’ve found it difficult getting to grips with this category as there are many different definitions of ‘inverted’ if you go to Google and ask to define the word you get the following:

Inverted, past participle, past tense of in·vert (Verb)

Verb:     Put upside down or in the opposite position, order, or arrangement.

Modify (a phrase) by reversing the direction of pitch changes.

If you take it further then with Free Online Dictionary you get:

in·vert  (in-vûrt)

v. in·vert·ed, in·vert·ing, in·verts

1. To turn inside out or upside down: invert an hourglass.

2. To reverse the position, order, or condition of:

Working on the above definitions and checking other student blogs I have come up with the book below.

An inverted photograph - The Poseidon Adventure

Book Description:

A relaxing Christmas cruise soon turns into a tragic accident as the luxury ocean liner, SS Poseidon, capsizes under a colossal tidal wave, and the passengers on board suddenly find themselves struggling for survival. A group of fifteen passengers face daunting obstacles, challenges and dangers, as well as a string of personal crises, in a fearsome race to escape the capsized ship. In a timescale of just ten hours, they face a life-changing physical and emotional battle forever changing the people they had once been. This extraordinary novel captures the true essence of human courage and spirit in a gripping fight for survival.

Comment:

After all my confusion about the type of picture to use I came up with this upside down ship which is depicted as floating upside down as it sinks slowly down to the depths of the ocean.

It is coloured blue which is understandable as the ship is sinking and our immediate thought of the colour of the sea is mid blue not the green/blue that is the real colour.  The ship in the picture is slightly out of focus, which is understandable, as it’s as if you’re looking at it from under the sea yourself.

The white coloured sans serif for the title and author’s name also links in with the bleached colour that items become with a lack of sunlight.

An historical archival photograph, but not depicting the subject precisely

C J Sansom, Dominion

Book Description

1952. Twelve years have passed since Churchill lost to the appeasers and Britain surrendered to Nazi Germany after Dunkirk. As the long German war against Russia rages on in the east, the British people find themselves under dark authoritarian rule: the press, radio and television are controlled; the streets patrolled by violent auxiliary police and British Jews face ever greater constraints. There are terrible rumours too about what is happening in the basement of the German Embassy at Senate House. Defiance, though, is growing.

In Britain, Winston Churchill's Resistance organization is increasingly a thorn in the government's side. And in a Birmingham mental hospital an incarcerated scientist, Frank Muncaster, may hold a secret that could change the balance of the world struggle forever. Civil Servant David Fitzgerald, secretly acting as a spy for the Resistance, is given the mission by them to rescue his old friend Frank and get him out of the country. Before long he, together with a disparate group of Resistance activists, will find themselves fugitives in the midst of London's Great Smog; as David's wife Sarah finds herself drawn into a world more terrifying than she ever could have imagined. And hard on their heels is Gestapo Sturmbannfuhrer Gunther Hoth, brilliant, implacable hunter of men . . . At once a vivid, haunting reimagining of 1950s Britain, a gripping, humane spy thriller and a poignant love story, with DOMINION C. J. Sansom once again asserts himself as the master of the historical novel.  

Comment:

My feeling with this book cover is one of a timeless city of London during the 1950s. The book is set in that era where Germany had invaded England but England continues in more or less the same way as if they had never won invaded.

The misty background with people in period costume and period settings give the impression of the 1950s whilst the red sans serif font title (I don’t think a Bold font has been used) is rather understated as is the personality of the British persona thought to be throughout the world. 

A still life close-up – A Hunger So Wild, Sylvia Day

Book Description

Elijah Reynolds is the most dominant of lycans, a rare Alpha whose skill for the hunt is surpassed only by his primal sexuality. When the lycans revolt against the iron fist of angelic rule, he steps in to command, becoming both enemy and coveted ally in the conflict between vampires and angels. Vashti is the second most powerful vampire in the world, a lethal beauty with a path of devastation in her wake.

Tasked with proposing an alliance between vampires and the lycans who killed her mate, Vash approaches Elijah, whose need to avenge the loss of his closest friend calls for Vash's death even as his passion demands her surrender. Soon, their enmity erodes beneath an all-consuming desire. Elijah has never encountered a woman whose warrior spirit and fierce sexual appetite rivals his own, while Vash is faced with the one man strong enough to be her equal. But as war looms, each must decide where their loyalty lies - with their own kind or with the enemy lover they can no longer live without...

Comment:

I’ve read the blub above and am having trouble trying to work out what the cherries represent.  The image itself is very well done with the deep saturated red, perhaps to represent blood as this book is about wars between vampires and lycans (?).  The black background and black and grey shadows allow the shapes of the cherries to stand out well.  In fact, the whole image has been desaturated except the cherries to make the emphasis fall on them.  The fonts are sans serif and in red to make them standout strongly.

I’ve not read this book but have read two of the three ‘Twilight’ books that are about vampires and werewolves as the heart of the story, and those books have a strong black and red themed front cover.

A minimalist landscape or outdoor scene with a large area of sky

The Breaker, Minette Walters

Book Description:

Twelve hours after Kate Sumner's brutally murdered body washes up on the beach, her traumatized three-year-old daughter is found wandering the streets alone. At first, the prime suspect is a young actor, obsessed with pornography. But now the local English constable has doubts about the victim's husband. Was he really out of town when
she was killed? And why does the child scream every time her father comes near her? Did Kate have affairs with other men while married to her husband, and, if so, did he know?

Comment:

This front cover is fairly obvious as the murdered woman was found washed up on a beach amongst the breaking waves.  The colour scheme is one that would be found on and around the water’s edge so fairly predictable.  The font for both the author’s name and the title is a serif style (something like Times New Roman (Windows) or Georgia (Mac).  I assume that the author’s name is in yellow/gold to make it less obvious than the title which is in white.  Again, I’m pretty sure that Bold hasn’t been used for either section.