The Little Sleep
Designer: Lisa Fyfe
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company / Holt Paperbacks
Typefaces: Knockout
Image: Created by designer, but the eye is spot art from CSA Images
Genre: Mystery

I saw this on Lisa's design:related page and had to feature it. The colors, the content, and the unique appeal to its genre snagged my attention. This design shows how a cover can complement a book's content. Great work Lisa!
–Jason Gabbert

What is the book about?
This is a mystery but a quirky, sardonic, fun mystery. Raymond Chandler meets The Big Lebowski. A local celebrity/daughter of the county DA walks into a detective’s office with a bizarre crime to solve. She woke up one morning and someone had stolen her fingers. Mark Genevich, a narcoleptic detective is on the case.

Constraints:
I was given the kind of constraints I love: “This is not your typical genre mystery. No shadowy action man with gun running into the light.” Perfect.

Process:
The writing in this book is imaginative and visual, the descriptive story of a detective who can’t stay awake. The author describes vividly, scenes of Mark Genevich’s bizarre hallucinations with dream sequences that blur the lines between reality and fiction. I wanted the design to be all about these dreams while conveying wit and humor through dancing guns and bright colors.

Inkblots influenced the actual form of the illustration. I like the creepy, eerie shapes, and the psychological concept they convey. I looked at a lot of inkblot illustrations, Noir movie posters and surreal art for inspiration. I wanted a design where objects where floating around like a trippy dream. I tried to create a fluid shape with both objects and type picking a fat typeface for a cartoony feel. A dream sequence in bright, flat color. I chose the typical mystery/thriller symbols: guns, bulls eye, ominous eyeball. The kind of images I thought would be floating around the mind of a narcoleptic detective. We did go through a few revisions to find just the right eye imagery, but luckily there wasn’t too much back and forth. I added the puff of gun smoke just for fun.

For the most part, this one was accepted enthusiastically from the beginning. I did show other comps all based on this concept. They were simple versions that focused more on type and small spot art. This was by far my favorite comp. It is just going to the printer now, the special effects are simple: matte with spot gloss on the guns. I will be thrilled to see it in print.

1.6.09 // Ian Shimkoviak said:

It's an interesting cover with striking boldness.

I like the inspiration in ink blotch art. Never would have thought of that.

There is a refreshing take on an old cliché here that makes this successful. very nice. The finishing touches of matte with spot on the guns will be elegant and add to the impact.

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1.8.09 // Charles Brock said:

How could you not stop and pick this cover up, especially in the mystery section? I read a lot of mysteries and crime fiction and I love that this just bucks what you expect to see for a mystery. Great job.