BRIEF 02: ANOTHER POSSIBILITY

Possibility of another transgressive novel to chose from, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, by Hunter S. Thompson. This novel and film received huge acclaim, chasing the american dream on a huge drug roller coaster.

FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS

NOVEL//WIKI

FILM//IMDB

I might not necessarily do all of these books but I will have to consider which of the rest to do, or which are best suited for it.

BRIEF 01: THREE MORE NOVELS

From crit feedback, there was a universal decision that adding more books to the collection would make sense and be a great idea. I originally was thinking because there are other novels that have gone to be big in the film industry that are transgressive fiction that I could create the collection so in the future other novels could be added but I decided would be best to add them now.

I have decided to add the following novels/films. That are both significant as books and film.

There is Trainspotting, Crash and A Clockwork Orange

TRAINSPOTTING

NOVEL//WIKI

FILM//IMDB

CRASH

NOVEL//WIKI

 FILM//IMDB

A CLOCKWORK ORANGE

NOVEL//WIKI

 FILM//IMDB

Trainspotting became a very famous film, directed by Danny Boyle, looking at a group of friends in Edinburgh who are heroin addicts. Both novel and film were well received so fits right into my collection.

Crash, written by J. G Ballard is an unusual story of car-crash fetishism. Receiving pleasure from real life car crashes. The film was not as well received internationally as the others but still important cult film.

A Clockwork Orange, hugely popular both in novel and film. Stated to be a dystopian novel it still is a work of transgressive fiction too. As it deals with problems in society, reacting to this and psychological  manipulating.

THE NEXT THREE ON THE AGENDA.

FIGHT CLUB RE-DESIGN

I came across this design earlier of Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk. I quite like it, use of a serif typeface, similar to Bell MT. I'm not sure what the objects in black are, all I know it appears quite similar to what I was doing but hadn't seen this before. Using it to create the negative space for the type to go on works well. I find the back cover to be too busy for me, too much type.

Its also says its published by Vintage which is also interesting.

VINTAGE LOVES FILM

While looking on VINTAGE's website I stumbled upon something called Vintage Loves Film. Looking through it is similar to what I am doing, due to the fact it is picking novels that turned into huge films, but re-designing the book for it.


Here is the information all about the design project taken on by Vintage.

The ‘Vintage Loves Film’ series is a one-off Summer Promotion to highlight ten Vintage bestsellers whose films also became box-office successes. For the consumer who may have seen the film but not read the book, we would be offering a fresh way of viewing these literary classics. This presented the design team with a difficult problem – how to tie the concept of film and book together. We particularly wanted to avoid a film tie-in approach, or work with film stills – the visual conceit would lie in how we described the transition of typed word to spoken word.

It occurred that quotes would be the way forward for a number of reasons:

1 – Most film fanatics can quote lines from their favourite films. For instance, we may not have seen, or know the story to the film Casablanca, but we remember the lines – ‘Here's looking at you, kid,’ ‘Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine’ , and even the misquote – ‘Play it again, Sam...’

2 – We use quotes from critics to help sell books, so why not use a quote from the book to sell itself?

We made a point of selecting quotes that were relevant to both film and book whilst making sure we remained faithful to the wording of the novel. The author name and title were relegated to the spine so that the quotes would be read as the description of the book, and not as typographic window dressing. Our insistence to work only with quotes and forego the usual trade conventions was initially met with some concerns, but the positive reactions from authors and estates alike confirmed that it was a bold, but correct approach.

Each designer took on two titles apiece, with the idea of choosing a type solution that would reflect the period or feel of the film (see below) and to complete the film connection we numbered the series with a motif inspired by the ten-to-one celluloid countdown on old black and white movies.

The simple cover concept needed to be complemented by the production values, so we printed in two colour (black and PMS485) on a pearlescent stock (Curious Metallic Virtual Pearl) with the bookblock edges dipped in black.

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Fight Club takes its inspiration from 1990’s experimental ‘grunge’ typesetting. The subversive design and misplaced O echo the novel’s anarchic nature.

Why use anything other than Helvetica for Trainspotting? – a typeface going through a much-welcomed renaissance in the 1990s.

The highlighting of the final line being an ironic nod to the novel’s subject matter.

Death in Venice interprets renaissance typesetting with a twist – the idea of something once-grand slowly fading away. Individual T’s become crosses as a forewarning of the inevitability of death, an odd contradiction to the enlightenment of the quote.

The concept behind the ideas are good, linking quotes of the story into the design of the books is a really good idea. I have picked out Fight Club as I am doing Fight Club and also Trainspotting because it as well is a Trangressive fiction.

Executed well, it is exactly the type of work I like, due to the heavy use of type. It is a very different take on the book covers to what I have and am thinking and I do really like what has been done but I am trying to get across something different, but still could use this as inspiration to the rest of the brief. 

VINTAGE

NEED A PUBLISHER FOR MY BOOKS

Its publishing list includes world literature, fiction, and non-fiction. Vintage is one of the biggest British publishing houses of trade paperbacks.

It is a subdivision of Random House publishing, which is in turn owned by Bertelsmann, a German media conglomerate.

In 1990 Vintage was set up in the United Kingdom. This division independently from the American company although both are part of Random House.

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Chose Vintage Books because it seemed appropriate looking at other novels that are under Vintage, very well suited books. It is a good company, one of the biggest British publishing houses as it says. They do a lot of different collections, and affairs to do with certain books if its an anniversary for example. 


Two books published by VINTAGE. Both by Irvine Welsh, another transgressive novelist.

TRANSGRESSIVE RESEARCH

Research into the films/ novels that I could design the book covers and box set for. These have to have been literature to a famous film in order for me to create the box set.