Using developing understanding of colour theory and typographic design/usage, study task 03 requires the production of a graphic reinterpretation of a given Agatha Christie novel as part of The Guardians celebration of what would have been the authors 125th birthday.
My given title was Christie's "The ABC Murders." Having not read the novel, I took to researching the plot so that I could quickly develop an understanding of the narrative and what it entailed in order to be able to make appropriate, informed design decisions. Below is the short synopsis I found to influence my design, with highlighted details I found to appear crucial to the plot:
"Hastings returns to Britain after a long absence to find Poirot anxious for a new case which will challenge his gray cells. Poirot quickly gets his wish in the form of taunting letters from a serial killer who has dubbed himself ABC and who leaves an ABC railroad schedule at the scene of each crime. The victims as well as the crime scenes appear to be chosen randomly, but maintain an obsessive adherence to alphabetical order. However, Poirot grows to believe that the killer is not the madman the authorities believe, but a methodical murderer with a very tangible motive."
My initial response to the synopsis was to research deeper into ABC railroad schedules, to find out what they were and discover their visual language. I found that The ABC Railway Guide was a database of railway infrastructure in Great Britain, featuring timetable and travel information. The guides' front covers featured an abundance of advertisements, set in stylised outlines and boxes framing each individual piece of information. The information communicated through the guides' cover is delivered through only black, excluding the main point of importance - this being the "ABC" of the title - which is set in bright red to draw attention to here primarily. There are numerous typographic styles featured on the guide's cover, with a different font for each advertisement, bearing varied weights of line, tracking and styles including serif, sans-serif, script and old-style. The profuse amount of type styles featured here would undoubtedly challenge modernist Massimo Vignelli's views on the use of more than two typefaces within a design.
It was my desire to produce a cover that was reminiscent of an ABC Railway Guide through the compositional layout and use of colour, however taking on a more modernist approach in terms of type-usage theory.
This redesigned cover clearly takes strong influence from the original ABC Railway Guide style, but instead features more cohesive spacing and white space between featured elements of information for are more dignified aesthetic and ordered hierarchy. As on the Guide shown above, the redesign features varying box/framing styles around each point of information, being the author, title, identifiable character profile (Poirot), genre and original publish date to justify the cover's specific visual language. I chose to deliver the typographic information on the cover through two juxtaposing type styles, being the sans-serif Futura for a more contemporary aesthetic - and serif type Baskerville in establishing the age of the timeless novel, as well as forming a connection to the original visual language of the Rail guide. Using the same black and neutral colour palette as the original guide, with small additions of red to add emphasis to key information on the cover - being the "ABC" notion the entire novel is built on through the killer and rail guides, and also the genre for ease of identification.
Although I felt that I had produced a well-informed cover that successfully communicated the cover's information through an appropriate and relevantly designed visual language, there was something about this cover that prevented me from being satisfied with the outcome. I believe it may have been the lacking visual presence of authenticity that is so clearly identifiable in the original ABC Railway guide, and so I reconsidered my approach to the task.
I decided to maintain the connection the plots concern with the rail network, instead opting for the use of a perspective train track - suggested through horizontal and vertical lines - as a grid to create a new setting for the cover's information.
My second re-interpretation of the cover features the said perspective-view track ordering information and directing the gaze from the top to the bottom of the composition via the horizontal lines present. I featured the track in black, delivering all typographic information through off-white type for a softer tonal energy, still with strong contrast for impact, that would be less intense for the eyes to perceive. I again chose to deliver the majority of the type through Futura for a more current, contemporary feel to the book showing the timelessness of Chrisite's novels as they continue to exist in modern society. I also featured the typeface Courier to establish a greater connection to the letters written by the ABC killer, written on a typewriter before being sent to Poirot - appropriate in that this typeface was designed to resemble the output from a strike-on typewriter. I decided to feature all the above information on an intense, bright red to communicate the suggestion of murder, blood and danger - as well as to mimic the colours of the ABC Rail Guide.
I believe this cover features a visual language that is more successful in its implication of Christie's plot that would be picked-up-on by a greater volume of people, who would not necessarily have been able to identify with the original Rail Guide-reminiscent treatment. Reaching a greater audience through again considered and informed design decisions, this cover I believe relevantly suggests elements of the plot that would create intrigue from the cover alone. This is the cover I have submitted to the Guardian's page.
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