My response to the Penguin book cover competition brief. I chose The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler so I could approach a more adult audience. After experimenting with different ideas, I finally settled on the theme of the map as maps are a personal interest of mine. I noticed the map of California looks like the shape of a gun handle: The gun is a main theme in the book and I feel the location of the story is important to the setting.

The little image on the spine is from a series of map symbols I created relating to the book - See below for sketchbook development. 

The bullets on the back cover follow the idea of the gun. They are coloured so to represent sleeping pills, playing on the title. The fallen bullet represents those who fall in the story. The significance of the last bullet being the one that has fallen is in accordance with the title - Three bullets for three syllables, the last one being asleep.

Sketchbook development of map symbols based on themes in the book. The contour lines used on the hat are similar to fingerprints. I looked at typography used on old 1930s maps and then edited typefaces together using Illustrator to achieve the same aesthetic. 

Sketchbook page showing the early stages of the map concept. I created the gun vector using Illustrator.