Book Cover Designs

Figure 1: 'four shotgun blasts that all told ended six lives'

The use of 'four shotgun blasts that all told ended six lives' on the cover demonstrates the destructive nature of the crime and its impact on both the family and the killers. This links to the impartial nature in which Capote wrote In Cold Blood as the quote gives equal weighting to the Clutters and Perry and Dick as in the end they all died as the result of the murders.  The placement of the quote in the centre takes advantage of the negative space allowing the eye to be drawn to the quote for a more powerful impact to be create. Other experimentations splitting the quote into three lines and placing it in the bottom corner created a more cramped look to the cover despite the large amount of negative space.

Figure 1

Figure 2: Character Icons

This cover focuses on the fictional events of the Clutters final day as created by Capote. Each icon featured represents on of the victims,  Mr Clutter (wheat grain) , thimble (Mrs Clutter), pie (Nancy) and the radio (Kenyon). These use of these icons hints to the reader about the events within the book by subtle referencing the characters which will become clear as the audience reads the book. The placement of Mr and Mrs Clutter at the top of the grid references the expected family dynamic which readers will discover is not the case due to Mrs clutters depression however despite the unusual dynamic this placement highlights the venerability of the two teenagers despite Nancy grown up role to highlight the destructive nature of the crime. The most successful designs features smaller versions of the icons about the title and author which create a column on the cover as inspire by newspaper columns which feature the high profile story. However I feel this design isn't as successful as others I've developed as it fails to create a significant impact on the audience.

Figure 2

Figure 3: Suspect list
This cover explores the suspects ( Bobby Rye) within the book and those which contributed to the Clutters murders in the form of Floyd Wells, Perry Smith and Dick Hitckock. The introduction of the murderers within the cover doesn't distract from the story line as Capote introduces the murders at the beginning of the book as he only withhold the details of the murders themselves. Consequently the inclusion of Floyd wells references his initial involvement in the crime as he was the person who told Dick about the Clutters and failed to correct him when he assumed Mr Clutter would have a safe and a large amount of money despite knowing Mr Clutter never carried cash. Therefor creating the motive for the crimes with some arguing that Floyd was just as much to blame for the murders as Perry and Dick. Bobby Rye was the main suspect initially as he was the only person with real motive to kill the Clutters however was later cleared by a lie detecter test. The use of including all of these characters subtly references the investigation which leads the capture of Perry and Dick.

Figure 3

Figure 4:
The use of the shotgun visualises the quote featured which references the destruction the murders caused as it ended the lives  both the victims and the murders. This was chosen for the cover in order to reflect the impartial way Capote constructed the book as he depicts the events as fact rather than from the point of view of either the victim or the killers allowing the audience to come to their own conclusion/feelings towards Perry and Dick without eternal influence. In order to develop this further to better reflect the Clutter the shotgun has been repeated four times to represent each victim. The use of red within this design is taken from the first book cover. The use of repeating the shotgun better reflects the story and quote (four shotgun blasts) as the use of one shotgun lacked impact as it got lost among the negative space on the cover.  The use of six repeated shotgun o represent the impact of the murders on both the victims and killers create a more accurate link to the quote however created a design that was too busy and cramped leading the use of four.

Figure 4