The Big Sleep - Raymond Chandler

Awarded 2nd Prize for Penguin Design Award Adult Competition 2013

I designed my cover to replicate the aesthetics of a vintage matchbox, hence the single colour, the screen-printed quality and ‘striker’ spine. The design also features many various motifs from the text, thus allowing the reader to re-visit the cover through out the course of the book.

The slipcase further cements the matchbox aesthetic, revealing that all the matches within the box have been burnt out bar one which carries the symbol of the knight, representing the principle character Philip Marlowe.

‘The colour usage is great and details are well done. Love the spine, and love the inner cover even more. A real surprise’ Jim Stoddart - Art Director, Penguin Press

‘There is a real effort here to avoid the noirish clichés that Chandler book cover designers love. The graphic detail on the slip case (designed to resemble a matchbox sleeve) rewards close inspection. And slipping the cardboard sleeve off reveals the burnt-out matchbox inner. At a time when sales of ebooks are rising, it needs “interactive” experiences like this to remind us of the primacy of the physical book’ 
Adrian Shaughnessy - Graphic Designer & Writer