OUGD403
Study task 03
Drawing the detectives 

This task was to design a graphic reinterpretation of a chosen Agatha Christie novel as a part of the guardians celebration of what would have been her 125th birthday. Using my newfound knowledge of colour theory and understanding of typographic design I had to redesign a cover for 'Curtain' which was the famous detectives 'Hercule Poirot' last case. 

The novel features Hercule Poirot and Arthur Hastings in their final appearances in Christie's works. It is a country house novel,with all the characters and the murder set in one house. Once I had a basic understanding of what the book was about I started to look at previous book covers for this title.

The three I've picked out all have different main focuses, the first one is referencing the morphine used to kill someone, the second one is touching on that Poirot himself was in a wheelchair for his last case and finally the last book cover has went for a stereotypical Poirot moustache. So now I knew what previous imagery was used to represent 'Curtain', I could base some ideas from them. I noted down key words that I could illustrate such poison and country house.  

My first initial ideas were to have a curtains shaped in Poirot's famous moustache to signify the curtains coming down on his long detective career, other ideas included pairing Poirot and Hastings alongside each other in a simplified human figure's illustration similar to male toilet symbols but have small details such as Poirot's moustache to differentiate them. Other inspirations came from alternative film posters and this is where I decided upon the idea I would develop.

My final idea was to involve a small part of the house in which the murders took place, and I thought a window would be most suitable, firstly because of its references to the title but also I thought a window could symbolise a way of not getting out,pinning on the point all the murders took place in the house. 

I chose to use Bodoni for the type because I believe it suits the style of Poirot, this typeface works well with the 1930s theme of the book and it looks clear and bold at the top of the cover. The secondary type below 'Curtain' is Futura, I chose it because personally I think it works well with Bodoni and isn't too overpowering below the text. I chose the dark and gloomy colours of the 1930s for the colour palette, i think the very light brown offsets well with the white block at the top. The green stands out for me, as it symbolises the darkness going on within the country house. 

For the illustration itself i wanted a simple window illustration centre of the page. It was later on in the task when I asked for feedback from a member of the class, and they commented on the sharp light reflection on the window saying it looked like a guillotine, even though the novel has no reference to a guillotine nonetheless its a clever interpretation of death and murder. The small skull and bones symbolises the poison inside the country house. 

Once I completed the design I uploaded it to the Guardians website as a part of the live brief,I always enjoy taking part in a live brief as I find it motivates me more during the design process.