This project was created in response to an imagined brief as part of an application for The Urban Writers. The brief was very broad and gave only the title, author, genre and a short plot summary. The summary essentially amounted to: a man moves into a house with an antique grandfather clock, and when the clock strikes midnight sinister things begin to happen.
With such an explicit title, straightforward concept and light brief, there were some obvious roads available to me (looming clock in shadowy room with some kind of distorted text). Especially with genre fiction, there are lots of visual tropes one might lean on. I wanted to steer clear of any cliches, while still conveying the horror genre.
Invoking my signature collage approach helped me avoid these pitfalls. Also, in line with my style, I took a non-literal, interpretive approach to the design. Without knowing the specifics of the story, I signified the sinister nature of the clock as it related to the protagonist by showing the clock inside a bloody, disembodied head with glazed eyes, depicting an emotional or thematic scene rather than a literal one.
The great accomplishment of this piece is that every element in the image has been modified substantially in order to create the final image. Piercings removed from the model's face, in addition to glazing out the eyes. The time on the clock changed, in addition to adding the broken glass. And the blood dripping from the open head wound is actually chocolate icing from a cake!
I used "Apothecary Serif" for the text on this cover, honestly because I just really enjoy it! I think with a little more information, I might have been able to make a more thoughtful, informed choice about the font here, but overall the irregular, distorted type does have a sinister feel and also gives a sense of the antique with its obvious inspiration from old-timey apothecary labels.
The colours all came together rather serendipitously. Red for blood, obviously, but a deep red specifically to highlight the sinister, dark nature of a book of this genre. The deep navy ended up just complimenting the red really well, helping to contribute to the overall darkness of the piece.