Hemlock Grove

Hemlock Grove is one of those book covers that has the majority of the type running vertically but actually makes it work well with the illustration. The cover creates has two main objects, one illustration and one typographical object. The illustration is an arm coming down from the top of the cover and reaching into the lower half of the page. The typographical object is a large "H" that contains the title and author's name. There is a great use of negative space. The "H" is also cut from a semi-opaque red box that makes the "H" shape the natural color of the sketch. This is a great use of type to create focus. I think that when you first look at this cover you notice the "H" shape and begin to focus on the name of the book, but after you have done that your eyes move onto the image of the arm coming down from the top of the page. I really like the idea of using this semi-opaque shape to merge the type with the image without changing the image itself. I think this concept could be used in many different outlets. This typographical technique could be used in flyers, websites, advertisements, and of course books. I really like the look of this cover. The only change I might make is that I would try using a more classic font, possibly a serif font. Even without a change to the font I think that this is a really cool cover and I want to try the use of negative space to create objects in my own work.