Penguin Design Award - A Fresh Approach

I have decided that the Penguin brief has become too restrictive for me. They state that one should "avoid the usual cliches" associated with crime novels, particularly of the era, and this has given me something of a creative block. So, I have decided to embrace all the cliches, stuff like:

• booze
• cars
• dames (lips/legs esp.)
• cigarettes (smoke, ashtrays)
• guns (smoking)
• long shadows
• black & white
• cops
• corruption
• raincoats
• hats
• gambling (cards/roulette/dice)
• murder

Along with all the usual LA cliches:

• sun
• Hollywood
• glamour
• palm trees
• excess
• greed
• corruption (again)
• murder (of course)

So, I will actively embrace all of the cliches but I will present them in a different, more surreal way. I have been looking at surreal collage recently and really enjoying it aesthetically, especially the work of Julien Pacaud, Max-O-Matic and Mario Wagner, as well as Richard Hamilton, Jamie Reid and Picasso. The images below capture elements of the sort of look and feel I am aiming for with the cover for The Big Sleep.

Future Islands - Julien Pacaud

Campo Cortos - Max-O-Matic

Venture - Mario Wagner

Hotel du Rhone - Richard Hamilton

No Feelings - Jamie Reid

Unknown Collage - Picasso

My next step is to find a lot of old photography from thirties/forties Los Angeles in order to create a beautiful surreal collage of my own.