Final Final Book Cover (phew)!

 After some criticism about my final design, I now had the chance to edit the piece before the Penguin competition deadline, which is tomorrow! Here is my original draft again and the edited version below:

First Draft

Edited Version

 The main element that needed adjusting the most were the composition of the types. On the front where the title 'The Big Sleep' is composed, I decided to make it a stronger design by making an alignment down the middle of each word. I did this by connecting the 'h' with the 'i' and then so on to the 'l' underneath. I had to adjust the sizes of each word too in order for this to work. It's improved because I believe the last one looked slightly messy and unconsidered. The connection down the middle as well emphasises the rain by making it look as though the type is running.
 As well as the title, I adjusted the author's name 'Raymond Chandler' by aligning both the 'R' and the 'C' with the back of the knight piece. This helped to form a frame around the composition. The same was applied to the type 'A Philip Marlowe Mystery' also. On the back, the only aspect that needed aligning were the critic's reviews underneath the blurb. I simply just boxed them together as they appeared widened last time  As well as the composition of the typography, I decided to lighten up the grey type on the front. It looked a little too dark in the first draft due to the background already being a solid black. The lightened type also composes more effectively with the rain because they appear almost the same shade.
 The image of the nude woman within the knight piece required some editing too. Her body is fine, but her hair in the previous draft was touching the edge of the knight piece. I simply just erased the parts that were touching and added a few more flicks at the end with the brush tool in Photoshop. The feet I believed needed a touch-up too because she looked as though she was on her tiptoes. I again applied the same method of erasing parts of the lines and used the brush tool to create a more realistic perspective.
 A final element that appears probably most noticeable is the dark rain within the spine. Seeing as rain was continuing from the front to the back in a diagonal motion, it seemed only suiting to connect the sides by placing the rain in the middle too. I coloured them with the same colour used on the original grey type. I experimented with black, but the mid-tone of the grey delivered better composition with the rest of the cover. It makes an effective contrast between the dark and light shades.

 And that's it for this piece so far. All I have to do is send it off to Penguin and hope for the best. I think I've done very well in this project. It has certainly increased my workflow.