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The Context

📚 This article is dedicated to a series of 28 practical exercises, one per article, consisting of applying a fluid and organic methodology which is : creating a story from a given visual, then impacting the art direction of the base visual, nuanced by the story thus created. It is an interdependent cycle generating the following creative flow: Basic Visual > Analysis and Psychological impact> Narrative reflection and Narrative design > Story > Improved Visual.

Through 28 concrete examples, and then 28 stories, I will present how a visual can inspire a story and how, in return, the story will guide the art direction to nuance the said visual. For it can improve the semiological atmosphere of the result of the narrative design, which is the Story.

I will also indicate how the differences in cultural context between the English version (or American) and the French version will slightly nuance the stories, mainly for the choice of the Title and Pitch. And, consequently, how these differences in titles will affect the final visual.

Usually, each of these articles would present TWO “back covers” of the same story as well as TWO “front covers” for each of the two languages ; but here, since the title stays the same for either language, there is only a single visual, albeit there are two “back covers” stories and pitches for either French and English version.

It is the reciprocity between Image and Story, Story and Image.

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The Story (English Version)

Mister Sunshine

“Vengeance is a cold dish. Justice is a hot drink.”

Nick Flemmings is a biochemist.

Or, rather, a former biochemist since his company decided that he was too costly and that his attitude was too negative -according to the head of the “happiness department” of the said company.

Unable to find work -because of his negative attitude, according to his social helper- he found himself thrown out of his flat because of his bank accounts -which were also way too negative, according to his landlord.

Abandoned by his friends and his wife -who considered him too negative since he lost everything- he decided finally to embark on a trendy and very positive reconversion: the one of personal development and life coaching.

By studying the systems of traumas and their neurochemical actions on the brain, Nick invents a process that allows traumas to be chemically extracted from the human brain, to condense them into a liquid, then bottle them.

Very soon, his activity becomes a phenomenal success and people crave after his revolutionary process which makes people more and more happy and more and more positive, free of all their traumas. Everyone is wandering around with a beatific smile on their lips. Everything is very positive.

Having quickly become a billionaire, his old friends, his ex-wife, and even his old company suddenly find him way much more positive and attempt to reconnect with him. And this, in the hope that all his prosperous positivity will be shared with those who have always believed in him from the start…

Now, for Nick, two problems arise: first, how to express all his gratitude to his ex-country, his ex-wife, his ex-company, his ex-friends and his ex-supporters?

And, above all, what to do with all these bottles filled with traumas?…

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The Story (French Version)

Mister Sunshine

“La Vengeance se mange froide. La Justice se boit chaude.”

Nick Flemmings est un biochimiste.

Enfin, un ancien biochimiste depuis que son entreprise a décidé qu’il coûtait bien trop cher et que son attitude était bien trop négative, selon la responsable du « département bonheur » de ladite entreprise.

Ne trouvant pas de travail, à cause de son attitude trop négative selon l’assistante sociale, il se voit jeté hors de son logement pour cause de comptes également trop négatifs, selon son propriétaire.

Abandonné de ses amis et de sa femme, qui le jugent trop négatifs depuis qu’il a tout perdu, il décide de se lancer dans une reconversion tendance et très positive : celle du développement personnel et du coaching de vie.

En étudiant les systèmes des traumatismes et de leurs actions neurochimiques sur le cerveau, Nick invente un procédé qui permet d’extraire chimiquement les traumatismes du cerveau humain, de les condenser en liquide, puis de les mettre en bouteille.

Très bientôt, son activité enregistre un succès phénoménal et les gens se disputent son processus révolutionnaire qui rend les gens de plus en plus heureux et de plus en plus positifs, débarrassés de tous leurs traumatismes. Tout le monde erre partout avec un sourire béat sur les lèvres. Tout est très positif.

Devenu rapidement milliardaire, ses anciens amis, son ex-femme, et même son ancienne entreprise le trouvent soudainement beaucoup plus positif et reprennent contact avec lui. Et ce, dans l’espoir que toute cette positivité sonnante et trébuchante soit partagée avec ceux qui ont toujours cru en lui…

Maintenant, deux problèmes se posent pour Nick : d’abord, comment exprimer toute sa gratitude envers son ex-pays, son ex-femme, son ex-entreprise, ses ex-amis et ses ex-soutiens ?

Et, surtout, que faire de toutes ses bouteilles remplies de traumatismes ?…

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The Creative Process

Step 1: Analysis of the Picture

A-The emotional and psychological feeling

The proposed visual – before any graphic intervention – represents a close-up shot of a man in a modern dark gray suit, his hands are in his pockets and he is wearing a golden glittering tie. His face is not shown and the neutral background gives no indication of a specific location or spatio-temporal context.

There is a strong contrast between the character’s very classic attire and his very outrageous tie which conveys an opposite symbolism, forming the core visual interest of the image. We narratively deduce a form of excess, dream, provocation, ridicule or contradiction between a “general conformist system” opposing a “contradictory minority”.

B-The possible narrative symbolisms of the character

Depending on this first reading – and in a current modern context – several options are therefore possible, according to a non-exhaustive and non-exclusive list:

• The cold gray suit can evoke that of a trader or a businessman and therefore the world of finance. The gold tie can therefore evoke success, material wealth or the moral drift of one’s profession.

• This costume can also be that of a politician. The golden tie can evoke “smoke and mirrors” used to deceive one’s interlocutor or, conversely, the desire to bring “sun” to the citizens and people.

• The extremely monotonous and conformist appearance of the costume can symbolize the “ordinary life” of a routine from a life without surprises and without emotions. The golden tie could therefore evoke a desire to dream or escape towards a more “sunny” life, full of meaning. Unless it symbolizes a form of escape towards an artificial world like drugs or activities assimilated to “escapism”.

The character’s body language is also important: the man has his hands in his pockets, which can have several meanings:

• Is it a position of assurance and self-confidence, indicating success? Or even a posture of arrogance?

• Is it, on the contrary, a way of hiding one’s hands, as a defense tactic? Allowing him to hide a lack of self-confidence or emotional weakness that his hands might betray?

• Is this a way of hiding something that he would have inside his pockets, ready to use it when the time comes? In this case, what would this thing be and what motivation would guide its use?

Therefore, we have several avenues of interpretation of this visual, but to create a narrative interest which would go against stereotypical interpretations by a first reading, it is appropriate to both carry out the synthesis of all these elements, then to observe the richness of their contradictions, without being incoherent.

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Step 2: Narrative Approach

A-Literary Genre

The most widespread approach in our current very materialistic and money-based Western socio-cultural context. Would be to treat only one of the narrative approaches cited above, namely:

• Financial success, which would lead to a type of “success story” – real (memoir) or imaginary (realistic novel).

• The mirage and the superfluous, which can cover genres such as fantasy, science-fiction, drama or fairytales.

• Escapism, which can mix all the genres mentioned above.

In order to create an emotional hybridization which would take on the “appearance” of the genres mentioned above before leading to a “hidden reality“, I therefore decided to develop first the plot on the themes Science Fiction, Satire and Social Fiction. But, later on, I will add a component of Vengeance, in order to be completely out of step with the aforementioned list, and then create an unexpected element of surprise.

B-The “bling” mirage…

To establish the initial context of the plot, I used the initial symbolic elements of “narrative appearance” transmitted by the basic visual: the success story (from nothing to everything), personal development and mirage.

By using the subjective approach of the unemployed person confronted with the cruel social reality of the world of work, I create an implication for the reader which allows him an identification with a well-known situation borrowed from Social Fiction. The resulting success story allows me to activate the leverage of the dream for a better life delivered “by magic” to arouse the reader’s interest.

The nature of the character’s profession allows me to lay the foundations of the science-fiction genre through biochemistry to be able to develop it later. Thus, the invention of “trauma in a bottle” allows me to make the link between the “success story” and “personal development”, creating another type of mental ideal, in addition to the material ideal of the success-story. Thus, creating the Mirage.

C-…and the “blood” reality.

The principle of “Mirage” having been established at start, I can then reveal the first elements of the plot which will arouse the interest of the reader by going against an utopian story appearing too perfect to be true.

The strong sarcastic tone employed from the beginning of the summary serves as an emotional guide for the reader to understand that “something is wrong” all along.

Indeed, by describing the utopian and futile pressure of a “perfect society that never makes a mistake” and by placing the “fault” on the protagonist, I create a cognitive empathy that develops between the reader and the character. I establish notions of injustice which can be understood by most of western readers, these will serve as a conclusion to the summary by setting out the premises of Vengeance.

The idea of “poetic justice” – where the victim uses the same weapons as his persecutors– allows us to explore many emotional routes with which the reader can identify, such as: injustice, social revenge, highlighting hypocrisy or administrative and sentimental manipulation.

The three initial themes of success-story, personal development and mirage are ultimately revealed to have been nothing more than pretexts for the real plot: Vengeance.

And by concluding the summary with the use of the science-fiction technology principle described at the beginning, I create a causal link loop by changing the destination of this technology. I change consequently the plot itself as well and I question the reader about its use, encouraging him to read the story to finally discover the true motivations behind the technology of “Trauma in a bottle”:

• Was it really supposed to help society?

• Did the protagonist initially develop it to heal himself?

• Am I making a symbolic allusion to a society that desperately wants to move toward happiness at the expense of reality?

• Am I referring to the “logistical problems” of storing toxic waste inherited from biochemistry – on a material or mental level? What repercussions would this “traumatic waste” have if it were released into nature?

• Was this “traumatic poison” created from the beginning by the protagonist only to satisfy his desire for revenge?

By leaving all these questions open, I instill an emotional and investigative tension in the reader and I therefore encourage them to read the story to satisfy these different narrative tensions.

D-The Title (French and English)

• The English and French titles are the same: “Mister Sunshine”. By creating a very theatrical, almost burlesque nickname, I form a cognitive caricature of an ideal and sublime character which could be borrowed from the world of the circus or superheroes. The protagonist literally claims to be a ray of sunshine for everyone: for society by ridding it of its trauma, for himself by achieving financial success and for all his relationships by forcing the line on the overused expression of “positivity” via the archetype of sunlight.

To avoid any confusion about the nature of the story, the subtlety of the reading of this title must therefore be counterbalanced: by strong visual signs through the graphic treatment of the cover, by the typography and as by the pitch itself. Doing so enables me to signal to the reader that “this is all too good to be true” and that “something is wrong”.

E-The Pitch (French and English)

The English Pitch is « Vengeance is a cold dish. Justice is a hot drink», the French pitch is « La vengeance se mange froid. La justice se boit chaude»  which has almost the same meaning. The literary expression “Vengeance is a dish best served cold” was used in the 18th century by the French writer Pierre Choderlos de Laclos for his famous work “Les Liaisons Dangereuses”, which also speaks of revenge and self-destruction.

I decided to develop this expression by qualifying it with my own plot, drawing a parallel between “what is eaten” and “what is drunk“, between Vengeance and Justice. In addition, I instill an allusion to the “liquid element” of the “trauma in a bottle” which is the technology that serves as the narrative pivot of the entire story.

The “hot/cold” opposition of the pitch allows us to evoke two complementary concepts: both a revenge carefully planned over time – the “cold”; but, also, a rage and an all-consuming resolve smoldering beneath the surface – the “hot”.

This also allows us to establish a moral and philosophical notion developed within the story: the blurred boundaries between Justice and Vengeance, whether personal or social.

F-Easter Egg Bonus: The names of Author and Publishing House

“Easter eggs” are very common in video games. This concept is a form of “private joke” hidden within the program which allows an allusion, a meme or a hidden message to be transmitted to those who know how to detect it. In this exercise and all the following ones, I use this playful semantics to “invent” an author name in relation with the story itself, as well as for the publishing house which is fictitious, according to the same principle.

• The author of this book is “Archie Ficial”, which is a pun on the word “Artificial” which evokes both the ephemeral pursuit of illusory desires instilled by the chemistry developed in the book, as well as the “fake” personality of the protagonist who pretends to be someone he is not.

• The publishing house “Actes Rudes” – means “Rough Acts” in French. This is a joke reference to Actes Sud (“South Acts”) which is a French publishing house based in the South of France. The homophony between “Rude” and “Sud” in French language allows us to make a pun on the “roughness” of the protagonist’s actions and motivations.

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Step 3: The orientation of Art Direction for the Cover

A-Choice of picture enhancement

Important note : The original visual contained a graphic error: the lower part of the jacket revealed the end of the real tie of the man who served as the model and on which a “false golden tie” was placed. I therefore had to correct this error by removing the tip of the true tie to avoid a false reading of the final visual. It’s all in the details.

Once the story was designed, it was necessary to nuance the very “caricatural” initial visual by instilling
clues about the true nature of the story.

This is why I speckled the shirt of the protagonist (who represents Nick Flemmings) with a few blood stains. The pattern of these bloody traces should not be excessive or too “gory”. Actually, these traces had to be almost hidden by the golden tie, giving the impression that the protagonist had tried to hide them in a hurry after committing a crime.

Symbolically, it is the shimmer of the golden tie -and, therefore, the mirage and the success- which is used to conceal the crime.

B-Typographic choice

To complete the visual reading in order to form a cognitive reciprocity of meaning and understanding of the plot, I needed a very particular Typeface whose treatment would allow me to convey the quintessence of the story:

I opted for the Victorian Parlor Vintage Alternate.

Because this font has several characteristics specific to serving the multiplicity of themes addressed in the story:

• First, it is a typeface which mixes the properties of a Garalde serif -on its low-cases glyphs– whereas its upper-cases glyphs are almost borrowed to an English type manual script writing, each upper-case glyph being almost an illuminated letter.

It therefore makes the connection between a Classic and ordered aspect – evoking the integration of the Success-story element (classy, elegant, calm, respectable) with the Exuberant and fancy aspect of the illuminated aspect – evoking excess, illusion and mirage (convolutions, sinuosity, complexity, ramifications).

• This font is also slightly textured. It therefore evokes a form of authenticity and/or raw harshness capable of serving the implacable and sincere character of Vengeance’s approach, without being too apparent.

• Finally, this font has almost a “narrow” type structure, elongated vertically. This induces a form of elegant and elaborate structure serving a feeling of subtlety extending over time and the maturation of carefully crafted plans, rather than simple brute and immediate force.

• This vertical elongation can also evoke the pursuit of “high” and “abstract” goals rather than material and crude ones. It confirms the ultimate high ideal pursued by the protagonist such as Justice and Vengeance.

Regarding the graphic treatment of the typography, I replicated the glittery texture of the tie over the entire surface of the glyphs, in order to make the visual link between the tie and the title to initially produce the “miraculous character” effect from “Mister Sunshine”. As I added blood stains under the golden tie to evoke the hidden crime, I used the same principle for the title: I created a blood-colored splash gradient in the lower part of the title, to signify that all that glitters is not gold and that, definitely, something sinister is lurking beneath the glitter of the illusion.

This post belongs to the Category :

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Check the latest comments!

1. 

   Thank you very much for your comment coming from an IT expert, Nouha!

2. 

   Very interesting article and excellent choice for th Sphinx!!

3. 

   Splendid as always! And also this showcase the very broad scope of your design skills!

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The Context

📚 This article is dedicated to a series of 28 practical exercises, one per article, consisting of applying a fluid and organic methodology which is : creating a story from a given visual, then impacting the art direction of the base visual, nuanced by the story thus created. It is an interdependent cycle generating the following creative flow: Basic Visual > Analysis and Psychological impact> Narrative reflection and Narrative design > Story > Improved Visual.

Through 28 concrete examples, and then 28 stories, I will present how a visual can inspire a story and how, in return, the story will guide the art direction to nuance the said visual. For it can improve the semiological atmosphere of the result of the narrative design, which is the Story.

I will also indicate how the differences in cultural context between the English version (or American) and the French version will slightly nuance the stories, mainly for the choice of the Title and Pitch. And, consequently, how these differences in titles will affect the final visual.

Each of these articles will then present TWO “back covers” of the same story, as well as TWO “front covers” for each of the two languages.

It is the reciprocity between Image and Story, Story and Image.

---

The Story (English Version)

Under my Skin

“Is the person under your skin really you?”

A serial killer is suffering from a degenerative epidermal disease. To slow down this disease, this killer must hunt down a victim every month and dismember it to clad in their skin with which he fuses. Like a shark, he must touch them, brush against them and caress them beforehand to find out if they are to his “taste”…

It turns out that this ritual also gives the killer the ability to take on the appearance of the victim for a whole month…

Two FBI detectives are on this case: Agent Jill Deray, Psychiatry Doctor and profiler; and Agent Lance Skinner, a former member of the Delta Force specializing in infiltration and exfiltration.

They are working together for the first time. A man. A woman. A ruthless hunter.

A hunter?…


…or a huntress?

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The Story (French Version)

Manque de Peau

“Quand la Mort vous a dans la peau.”

Un tueur atteint d’une maladie dégénérative de l’épiderme se doit de tuer tous les mois afin de dépecer ses victimes pour se vêtir de leur peau avec laquelle il fusionne. Tel un requin, il se doit de les toucher, de les frôler et de les caresser auparavant pour savoir s’ils sont à son “goût”…

Il s’avère que cela lui donne
également la capacité de prendre l’apparence de sa victime pour un mois…

Deux détectives du FBI le traquent : l’Agent Jill Deray, également Doctoresse en Psychiatrie et profileuse ; et l’Agent Lance Skinner, ancien membre de la Delta Force spécialiste de l’infiltration et de l’exfiltration.

Ils travaillent pour la première fois ensemble. Un homme. Une femme. Un tueur.

Un tueur?…

…ou une tueuse?

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The Creative Process

Step 1: Analysis of the Picture

A-The emotional and psychological feeling

The proposed visual – before any graphic intervention – represents a zoom on two profile faces touching each other, skin to skin, which suggests an intimate contact.

Intimate but not necessarily loving or tender, since the expressions of the faces are relatively neutral: the two persons represented are not really smiling or grimacing, both have their eyes closed and seem immersed in intense reflection, or even a meditation.

• Are they immersed in a deep mutual love feeling, enjoying a moment of supposed intimacy?

• Are they in a form of restrained and symbolic adversity, like a “gentle face-to-face”?

• Are they in a purely tactile approach to the other, as if they were blind?

• Are they communing towards a common goal or dream, whatever it may be?

B-The ambiguity of the characters

The people depicted appear to embody a woman on the left and a man on the right, but is it really the case?

• The long hair and light eye makeup of the “woman” on left seems to indicate her feminine nature, as well as the red appearance of her lips which could evoke a lipstick touch.

• But “the man” on the right also has very red lips, and his hair is also long, his features are thin, emaciated, almost feminine in their symbolism; while the features of the “woman” are more babyish and rounded, they form an “archetypal opposition” between the pointed and the round, the concave and the convex. And this, regardless of their respective genres.

This “couple” is therefore visually ambiguous, deliberately departing from a standard classification of the male/female opposition.

In the current socio-cultural context, it could as well be two women, two men, a woman on the right and a man on the left, or two transgender people… since only a close-up of their faces is visible. And, therefore, this photo deliberately does not give us enough information to be able to deduce their sexual gender using a vision of their bodies, their clothes or their body language. A doubt remains.

Their “genders” rather evoke a form of combined and ambiguous androgyny where the sexual deduction of the representation of these characters is only a “narrative vagueness” which the storyteller can easily seize and play with narratively.

Consequently, the ambiguous sexuality and emotional neutrality of this image gives us the opportunity to be able to influence it in one direction or another, towards any given emotion or towards its opposite.

And, if necessary, to be able to create surprise by going against a cognitive bias that one could receive when interpreting this visual way too quickly.

From the surprise that goes against preconceived ideas, narrative interest is born.

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Step 2: Narrative Approach

A-Literary Genre

Our recent Western cultures are mainly focused on individual feeling and introspective emotional analysis. Therefore, most spectators viewing this image would deduce that this visual represents tenderness, sensuality, intimate proximity and, consequently, Love. With more or less hazards linked to the experimentation of this feeling.

In order to create an emotional contrast opposed to this commonplace, I decided to go against the general feeling and therefore to create my story on the theme of Thriller and Horror.

B-From intimacy to predatory “gustation”

Indeed, the neutrality of the characters almost immediately reminded me of something deeper than a “simple sentimental relationship”. However, intimacy had to be present in the story, because it is factual from the visual: the characters are skin to skin. However, there are many situations that can lead to epidermal proximity regardless of love: rape, hand-to-hand violence and predation, especially concerning certain animals for whom smell and taste are essential during hunting.

Some sharks have “taste buds” all over the surface of their skin, allowing them to “taste” their prey by simply “brushing” their bodies against the prey to check if it is to their liking. I therefore imagined that the killer could have a similar need, requiring to “brush” his skin against his prey – and therefore resorting to a certain intimacy – to be able to identify it as an “appropriate” victim to consume. Thus, I designed the concept of a predator who would synthesize a perverse need for intimacy with a physiological need to “consume skin” for a very specific use.

C-The “skin disguise” as a suspense leverage

I tapped in my knowledge of certain serial killers such as “Ed Gein” who skinned their victims out of morbid fetishism; then, the idea of a serial killer who would be driven by a need for survival seemed interesting to me. In fact, it allowed to not submit the intrigue exclusively to the “classic profiling” of a killer through psychiatric means alone, but also to induce a feeling of emergency dependent on biology to define the killer’s modus operandi.

Thus, the investigation could be enriched with twists and turns and a wider range of deductions, hypotheses or errors on the part of the investigators, throughout the story. This gives the opportunity to prod the reader in a wrong direction, while being faced with a wider range of emotions. The concept may even relativize the reader’s emotions to the point of possibly empathizing with a sick being who needs to kill to survive. The philosophical aspect of survival at all costs at the expense of morality was then interesting to explore and develop.

Finally, the fact that “consuming” the skin of his victims allows the killer to take on the identity and body of his victim adds an additional lever of suspense: the fact that his appearance can change very regularly during the story causes an intellectual and emotional instability in the reader. And this instability would be echoed by the growing paranoia of the investigators; after all, the killer could be right next to you…he could even be your co-worker.

This is why, in the end, I concluded the summary of the back cover with a question leaving open the field of possibilities: since the appearance of the killer can be indifferently masculine or feminine, his original gender can also be masculine or feminine (or even something else?…).

This brings us back to the visual ambiguity from the original photo picture: a “man” and a “woman”, skin to skin… except that, now, the filter of the story makes them appear in a different light… with, possibly, one of the two protagonists with intentions which may differ very much from what he – or she – initially appear to emit…

This also allows us to raise the question of sexual identity within our modern societies by linking it to a strong sociological theme, inviting the reader to position themselves towards it.

D-The Title (French and English)

• The French Title is “Manque de Peau” (Translated as “Lack of Skin”). It is a homophony playing on the French slang expression “Manque de Pot” (literally “Lack of Pot”) which means “Out of Luck”. In this case “Peau” (“Skin” in French) and “Pot” (“Pot” in French) are pronounced identically and have the same sound.

It is a pun implying that, if the killer is literally in a “lacking skin” mode, it also means that his next victim is therefore “out of luck” in crossing his path.

• The English Title is “Under my Skin”. The expressions and cultural context between France and the USA being very varied, it was not possible to literally translate “Lack of Skin” for the English version, as it would have no “second meaning” and, then, was lacking the subtlety needed for a paranoid thriller.

So, I chose a vintage reference to the American song by Frank Sinatra, “I’ve got you under my skin” which evokes a devouring and carnal love and I applied it literally to the story, as it was making more sense for American readers. Additionally, if the book was to be written, I was considering the song be heard by one of the characters to add to the semiological atmosphere.

E-The Pitch (French and English)

• The French Pitch is “Quand la Mort vous a dans la peau”. Literally translated from French, it means a slang expression: “When Death got you under its skin”; just like the reasoning on the English Title described above, it is a form of allusion to the song by Frank Sinatra “I’ve got you under my skin”, as this expression also exists in French.

The idea was to hook the reader with a familiar image of closeness, all-consuming intimacy and obsessive pursuit, while twisting this popular expression on the theme of skin.

• The English Pitch is “Is the person under your skin really you?”. Unlike the French pitch, I didn’t want any supplementary allusion to the Frank Sinatra’s song because that would have been a redundancy with the Title.

Asking a disturbing question is much stronger, as it questions the very identity of the reader and the relationship with their own body. It makes a direct link with the phenomenon of confusion and intimate paranoia leading to madness which will be diffused throughout the story.

F-Easter Egg Bonus: The names of Author and Publishing House

“Easter eggs” are very common in video games. This concept is a form of “private joke” hidden within the program which allows an allusion, a meme or a hidden message to be transmitted to those who know how to detect it. In this exercise and all the following ones, I use this playful semantics to “invent” an author name in relation with the story itself, as well as for the publishing house which is fictitious, according to the same principle.

The author of this book is “Stéphane Roi”, which is the literal translation into French of “Stephen King”, great master of horror.

The publishing house “Fleuve Rouge” means “Red Mainstem”. This is a reference to “Fleuve Noir” (“Black Mainstem”) which is a French publishing house specializing in police, espionage and anticipation novels… I simply added a little more blood…

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Step 3: The orientation of Art Direction for the Cover

A-Choice of picture enhancement

Once the story was designed, it was necessary to stage the initial visual without necessarily stripping it of its initial aspect: in fact, the neutrality and ambiguity of the initial characters were strong enough to stand on their own and to encourage the reader to a form of indecision.

I just had to add a slight “nudge” to orient the cover visual to dispel a possible romantic interpretation. Though, I had to achieve this without eliminating the mysterious aura of the photo where romance COULD be a possible interpretation, but not the only one.

In short: it is only at the end of the book that the reader will be able to “understand” retroactively the scene presented on the cover and deduce, at that moment, a romantic, horrific or suspicious reading from the visual.

• Therefore, I decided to apply a relatively discreet skin texture with a torn effect at the top and bottom of the cover. It did not have to be gory or bloody, but simply present enough to “evoke” the stakes of the story and reinforce the intimate aspect between the protagonists in the photo

• The “torn” aspect of the skin evokes the tearing of the killer’s modus operandi, of course, but also the emotional “tearing” of the protagonists: the one of the investigators, the one of the victims and the one of the killer who, too, is fighting for survival.

• The choice of skin color of the texture had to be one of either character in the visual, in order to create a semantic link between them and the design. It could therefore be of a “light flesh” tone like the face on the right, or of a more “brown” tone like the face on the left. Though, as the “brown” appearance was rather evoking leather – a dead material, I finally decided to opt for the “light flesh” tone – evoking (almost) living skin.

B-Typographic choice

As the literary genre oscillates between horror and thriller, it required a typeface that evokes these two atmospheres.

I opted for the Gabriele Dark Ribbon -Black.

• This typeface being related to the “typewriter” style, it evokes a purely informative, direct and pragmatic administrative character; suitable for illustrating investigation reports or documents where only raw information counts, without embellishment and without emotion. It is a typeface form related to the family of “Mechanistic” typeface which was born following the industrial era and, then, at the time of the security anxiety rising within growing modern megalopolises.

• In addition, its textured appearance -as if the glyph was engorged with ink– evokes even more the urgency of a report typed very quickly, without concern about the final presentation: this announces the stress linked to the “run against the clock” atmosphere within the story. Its torn contours also makes a visual link with the semantic tearing of the skin texture which comes in the background.

• To establish a chromatic balance with the color of the skin texture that I sampled from the character on the right (as specified above), I also sampled the darkest skin color from the character on the left. I used it as color for the font text, completing the link between the text color and the texture color, mirroring the two skin tones of the protagonists. There is also a slight reddish border outline in the lower part of the glyphs’ bevel effect, as if the text was branded and carved into the skin texture.

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Check the latest comments!

1. 

   Thank you very much for your comment coming from an IT expert, Nouha!

2. 

   Very interesting article and excellent choice for th Sphinx!!

3. 

   Splendid as always! And also this showcase the very broad scope of your design skills!

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