Pulp Detection

There is an extraordinary art and style to the covers of detective novels. And it often seems that the cheaper the novel, the more elegant or extravagant the art is. My background in drawing, rather than painting, has also left me with a love of black-and-white, so I set out to explore the combo of drawing and book design.

I got the joy of creating a whole series of different designs for one artwork - plus creating fonts and lettering styles, colour schemes and layouts. But the intricate part is…

…find the story.

The book titles and author’s names create a classic noir detective trailer. Read them out loud and see if you can find the story, which roughly traverses left-to-right and top-to-bottom. (Note that the author I.E.B.Foure should be read as “that is, before…”)

Enjoy the challenge.