In Cold Blood Book Cover

  • José María González
‘In Cold Blood’ by Truman Capote is about the murder of a family in the late fifties in Holcomb, Kansas. The story tracks Capote’s interviews and developing relationship with the killers Smith and Hickock as they near their execution date at the gallows.
Focusing on the final moment of execution, the concept for the book cover is based on the simple letter guessing game ‘Hangman’ where you are shown a series of blank spaces which then need to be filled in. If a wrong letter is picked - a mark is laid down on the page - eventually building up a set of gallows and a ‘hung man’ - at which point the game is lost.
The concept underpins a number of themes within the book, including the ambiguous motivations of the murderers and Capote’s attempt to puzzle through these; as well as the building up of the trial towards a potentially lethal outcome.

Project Tags

Companies

  • Penguin Random House UK logo

    Penguin Random House UK

    • Publishing