SCA266: Short Stories Book Cover: Rough Concepts

So our final assignment for our Photography class is to build a cover for a short story. We had a set list of stories to choose from, I chose "Greasy Lake". The story is about 3 friends who travel to Greasy Lake as their hangout looking for trouble (drugs, sex, alcohol etc). However, they run into real trouble after one of their friends gets in a brawl with a biker.

With both designs, I went with a vignette effect. I find that it helps focus the viewer towards the focal point of the design. The first cover I went with a black and white and an accent colour. The red type and the blood on the hand against a black and white background will really jump out at the reader and grab their attention. The bloody hand relates to the brawl one of the characters gets in. The hand is not mine, it's there just strictly as a mock up for the real composition.

Cover Design 1

Cover Design 2

When I got the bulk of this design done, I got the "movie poster" vibe with this one, so I went with it. Added a blue hue to the picture and the vignette to make the image look more eerie and ominous. The shooting location was a pond area in my neighbourhood right next to a shopping centre. It had heavy tree cover and murky, dirty water, so I knew right away that this location would be the best place to shoot my pictures.