Coffin Dodgers
A novel by Gary Marshall
A novel by Gary Marshall
Gary Marshall is an accomplished author of non-fiction books, and technology pieces for UK magazines. Coffin Dodgers is his first novel, and I was lucky enough to work with him in creating the cover for this eBook.
The pitch from Gary was something along the lines of “reasonably colourful, with the title very clear” so I had some room to manoeuvre. The book tells the tale of a group of friends who realise that OAPs are on a killing spree.
Slippers
Concept one focussed on the slippers and walking stick of an old man, with the viewer positioned very low. The walking stick was to have "Mike Giant"-style art, indicating that this was no ordinary old man.
Sons of Anarchy
The second concept focussed on the back of an old man, and was largely concerned with the detail on the back of the man's jacket. Much like in Sons of Anarchy, this man was to have a "cut", displaying his gang sign. In this case, "Coffin Dodgers".
Face close-up
Elderly People Crossing
The fourth and final concept was a bastardisation of the classic "Elderly People Crossing" roadsign. There were a few attempts at drawing this, but the one you see below is how I presented it to Gary.
... and here's how it looked once scanned.
With some help from a friend, I got it vectorized and began playing around with backgrounds, mindful of Gary's request for brightness. What you see here is the grayscale version (what you'll essentially see on your Kindle), and the full colour version for display on Amazon.
The typography is Bebas Neue and was suggested by Gary.
