Whilst primarily using only black, Marber occasionally extended his colour palette to include a secondary colour. However on some covers, there would only be the addition of one extra colour, such as white, or red. The red was only used as an addition, as in 'The Scarlet Letters' (below) to further extend the darkness and danger of the image. For his covers, Marber created illustrations as well as utilising photography, which he distorted to give a menacing feel and sense of uncomfortableness to his covers.
Marber liked to manipulate and distort photography for his covers. In 'The Night of Wencelas' Marber drew inspiration from his surroundings. The room he was working in contained a window with ribbed glass as the pane and it appeared to slice up and segment anyone who would walk past. Inspired by this, Marber bought ribbed glass and recreated the effect to add movement - echoing the chase within the book. Marber used the same technique of the ribbed glass in 'The Case of the Turning Tide' to represent the reflection of a face in a turning tide.
Occasionally the manipulation would not go to plan and the image would not turn out the way Marber intended. In 'The Maltese Falcon' (below), the photograph was not meant to to look as it does, with the big dark shadow partly engulfing the figure. Marber said he could have easily have discarded the image but instead chose to keep it as it seemed menacing and fitting for the theme of the book.
Whilst creating the covers for Dorothy L. Sayers books, Penguin decided that any author with many titles under the Penguin publication should have an identifying element to the covers. Marber had almost finished the cover for 'Have His Carcase' and just added a white stick figure to the illustration. He applied this figure across all her titles, altering the position each time to give a slight differentiation to the covers.
As well as creating crime covers, Marber continued his 'crime grid' over to Penguin fiction for George Simenon's novels. However in these books, he wanted to end the assocation with the crime covers there. To him, he felt the distorted photography method had become synonymous with the genre and wanted to break away. Instead, he changed to drawing, creating sketchy and abstract illustrations. He reflected the setting of the books in his drawings, using the red white and blue of the French flag to depict that the books were set in France.
Whilst I like the use of a colour motif, I prefer the almost sinister effect of distorted photography and collage. I am inspired to potentially use a limited colour palette, as well as photography and distort it to create a unique effect to my covers.
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