Penguin Design Award - The Cover Designs

With my chosen photos in hand I got busy putting the final covers together in Photoshop. Penguin provided a template and all the required text, which was handy, although I had to go to Mr B's to get the blurb for the backs of the other three books in my set. While I was there I told the incredibly nice and knowledgeable chap what I was up to and he said he would love to see the finished artwork. I plan to return to Mr B's once the blank books are made up so I can show him, and take photos of them on the shelves to see how they sit alongside the other crime fiction novels.

Without further ado, here are the first drafts of my final covers. The text on the back is HelveticaNeue LT 55 Regular at 11pt, which is a bit vanilla and possibly a bit too chunky. I will address this once I have printed them out and looked at them properly. I think that ITC Machine works really well on the spine as it is quite unusual and instantly says Hollywood, as well as reflecting the text on the front cover.



I am also not too sure about having two different shades of blue/cyan. I think it works for The Lady in the Lake but perhaps I can find something more suitable for The Big Sleep.