The Damnation Game
book jacket design
The Damnation Game is the debut novel from Clive Barker, published in 1985. It centers around a cast of characters caught in the midst of one man paying back a debt from hell. Dark, graphic and twisted, this book touches on many themes like murder, addiction, mind control, and necromancy. You are witnessing most of the events of the book through the eyes of Marty, a man plucked from prison to serve as a personal guard for the wealthy Mr.Whitehead. You learn things as Marty does so this sense of unknowing persists. Paired with the often times unsettling content of the book, Clive Barker has created a skin crawling story.
the challenge
Design a conceptual book jacket for Clive Barkers The Damnation Game. The design should be updated from the traditional style of covers seen for 1980's horror paperbacks to have a more modern design.
ideation
To begin creating a concept for this book jacket design, I made a mood board focusing on a few themes seen throughout the book. Those themes are mind manipulation, necromancy, and death. I wanted to begin thinking of ways to find how these three themes could come together as one idea.
past covers
I looked at a bunch of different covers for The Damnation Game from the past. This book has mostly been printed in paperback and was originally published in the 80s. So needless to say, some of the cover designs are a bit dated.
this is the copy I was reading from
the most modern version of the cover
sketches
I sketched ideas for a few covers and for a few full jacket spreads. I was exploring ideas that involved recurring elements from the book, like strawberries, playing cards, and body parts. I decided that using these symbols would be too literal when an opportunity to create a bit of mystery was available.
drafts
I decided to move on from sketches focusing on using a brain as the subject for my concept. The idea of manipulating a brain to achieve the cover plays into the themes of the book in more ways than one. From actual mind control, to drug use, to memory erasure and more, the minds of these characters are altered and invaded in more ways than one. I chose this wood cut style stock illustration of a brain to manipulate.
At first I was trying out all these extreme ways of distorting the image of the brain. It was a bit too much and wasn't conveying a sense of mystery. It just kind of looked gross, which would work, but I wanted my design to be a bit more intriguing than that. It felt too much like the old covers. I got some feedback about making the design more simplified and that inspired me to zoom in on the brain without altering it.
the solution
My final design has the image of the brain expanded and spread out across the entire jacket. Upon first glance, you might not be able to recognize it for what it is, or maybe you'd confuse it for something else. I wedged the title of the book in the split of the brain. Doing so plays off of events of the book when the game is penetrating the minds of the characters, even if they don't know it.
reflection
I had a lot of fun working on this project. I did feel very stunted at one point while trying to figure out the best way to utilize the brain imagery. Overall, I think the project taught me more about creating a conceptual design. Having to design a conceptual cover for something with such dark subject matter was a bit of a challenge but I think my solution for the book jacket is clever and fitting for the book it holds. I think it would be cool to produce a set horror book covers in this style. In future projects like this, I would love to create my own illustrations.