Student Design Award 2020 Adult Fiction shortlist

For my book cover design for The Night Manager, I wanted to create a cover that collectively brought together all the different elements from within the book. Effectively, displaying the entire story visually on the front and back of the over, without spoilers. This set in my core design thought process that any design choices I decided to make would hold reference and contextual meaning to what was in the book. The typography, imagery and overall visual aesthetic and theme, all reflect a detail within the book, whether it be a quote, location, or significant moment.

My approach to the brief was largely focused on identifying the key themes of the book in order to create ambiguous imagery that hinted at the contents, without revealing too much and allowing the reader the freedom of their own imaginative interpretations. I chose to focus on the theme of deceit; I depicted this through a downward spiral of layers that Jonathan falls into throughout his journey, taking twists and turns along the way, getting darker the deeper he falls. There are hidden layers hinting at hidden identities and secrets, with a cool-toned colour palette to set the mood.

For my book cover design, I’ve used an ornate and decorative design throughout the cover to convey the wealthy and lavish lives of the characters in the book, the details and elements within the design further convey the darker themes and layers of the story such as paranoia, betrayal and death. I’ve also used clean line work to emphasize these details and the symbolism within the design helps give the cover a mysterious look and feel.

My submission’s concept was to create a mysterious expansive landscape scene, playing on the themes of the story. Capitalising on the iconic imagery surrounding hotels, the composition can be seen to subtly form a hotel door hanger. My textural inspiration came from Owen Gent, really aiding the enigmatic atmosphere that I was trying to create. The potent contrast of the bright white moon is really something that I wanted to exaggerate therefore, if this book cover went into production I would suggest that all the whites were printed with a white varnish.

When starting my design I knew that I wanted the weapon to be the main focus. My concept was to incorporate this into objects which are naturally and almost exclusively associated with a hotel environment. The do not disturb signs found on door handles are synonymous with hotels and this then became the perfect object to have hanging off the barrel of a gun. My colour palette was intentionally simplified to add strength to the image and not provide a distraction to the visual concept.

I based my concept on the original story-line of the book. Idea generation is always my favourite part of a project and I wanted the cover I designed to reflect the fast paced escalation of events and characters from the starting point of the Queen Nefertiti Hotel. Using a monochromatic colour scheme and drawing ink helped to create a document-like feel to the design, especially on the back cover where I wanted to recreate ‘sanitisation’ of secret documents. Using visual symbols to represent key storylines, characters and events I wanted to show the overwhelming development of circumstances that Jonathan Pine discovers in John Le Carre’s The Night Manager.

I started by analysing the fundamental concepts of the plot. The book focusses heavily on themes of espionage, misdirection and more surprisingly, sailing. This provided me with some strong themes, which I developed into my final solution. When I read the book, it inspired the idea that the protagonist was sailing within his own fragile world. But this world was spilling out into something treacherous (hence the use of a blood red). I designed the champagne flute to also appear as a bullet, adding to my themes of duality. misdirection and threat; suggesting a world of opulence and danger.

My inspiration came from a specific line in the book itself,'the whole thing's a stag hunt', which can be seen as a metaphor for the plot itself. Both the protagonist, Pine, and the antagonist, Roper, are arguably the stag and the hunter. This seemed a fitting piece of imagery to be portrayed on the cover.

My final concept focuses on the distortion of the espionage world within the novel, where Pine finds himself trapped and no one is to be trusted or as they first seem. I wanted the cover to be a metaphor for le Carré’s writing style, where the viewer has to work to decipher the image, text and materials as you do when unravelling the novel, multiple plot lines and characters. As a commentary on the powers for the Intelligence Services, I draw on le Carré’s references to sea imagery and use Roper’s emblem of the crystal to demonstrate his hold.

My cover for The Night Manager encompasses key themes of the novel; identity, deception, life undercover and ultimate redemption. Having to search for the title of the book within the quote references Pine’s loss and search for personal fulfilment and identity throughout the novel, together with his hidden identity during his undercover roles. The design reflects the atmosphere of the novel, Pine’s personal complexity, and the “total blackness” in which Pine is forced temporarily to live.