1609QCA Intro to Typography

1609QCA

Jody Wasley s5007247

The books chosen are representative of the horror/thriller genre.

Although they are not by the same author, I have chosen three popular horror books that could be linked to each other through typography.

American Psycho

by Bret Easton Ellis

The Girl on the Train

by Paula Hawkins

Mile High

by Rebecca Chance

In order to convey a creepy vibe, ink was chosen as my medium. I experimented with different effects on each of the ink drawings and did most of the editing on Photoshop. I utilized overlay effects, clipping masks, motion blur, layering, inverted colours and free transformation.

Here are my design choices for the project.

STYLE & GENRE The three books were chosen to represent the horror/thriller genre.

Thus, all book styles contain themes of chaos, eeriness and unease.

MATERIALS & PROGRESS Each of the typographic pieces were made with ink because it was suitable to convey that rough, chaotic feel with different ink techniques. In American Psycho, I used a personal ink type as a vector and then filled it with a grungy American flag pattern in order to express the interpretation of a psychotic American. The Girl on the Train, on the other hand, kept the ink filled white and applied a motion blur effect to it. This was inspired by the original book cover which uses the idea of trains and movement to create this effect. Mile High is quite an old book targeted at a mature audience so I’ve used the stained wet look in order to replicate the unnerving vintage vibe. I’ve also taken inspiration from the glasses on the original book cover to make a silhouetted type in order to add depth in the cover.

TYPOGRAPHY All the blurbs use Times New Roman because it works well against the sansserif ink typography and is easier to read in small font. The author’s names, with exception to American Psycho, use the simple Optima font because it is clean and doesn’t take attention away from the titles. Because the American Psycho cover was very bold, it didn’t look right to add in a different style of font for the author name so I’ve kept the same style throughout that cover.

COLOUR The colours used are dark and eerie to support the horror genre. It is aimed to make the audience feel a sense of unease to reflect the story inside. I’ve kept the continuation of black and white through the majority of the three books in order to link them together.

I have voided completely bright and bubbly colours because the books aren’t targeted at a young audience.

PUBLISHING LOGO The publishing logo was made very simple and omitted pictures because, like the fonts, I didn’t want it to take the attraction away from the typographic illustrations. I chose the name Hellion Press because the word hellion holds scary and devilish connotations.

LAYOUT & RELATIONSHIP In the layout of the three books, I wanted the front cover text in a large scale in order to be in your face and provocative. This is opposed to small and vulnerable text which doesn’t convey a chaotic vibe. In order to tie all the covers together, I kept the background colour, layout, blurbs and genre the same.