Brief

"Survivor, genius, perfumer, killer � this is Jean-Baptiste Grenouille. He is abandoned on the filthy streets of Paris as a child, but grows up to discover he has an extraordinary gift: a sense of smell more powerful than any other human�s. Soon, he is creating the most sublime fragrances in all the city. Yet there is one odour he cannot capture. It is exquisite, magical: the scent of a young virgin. And to get it he must kill. And kill. And kill...

The cover should be eye-catching and have the potential to draw people to it who have never heard of the book before. And yet it should also appeal to and not alienate readers who have heard of Perfume, maybe have even read and enjoyed it already but now can't resist buying a definitive copy of the book with an amazingly attractive cover.

Think twice before responding to the title too literally. The title in this case is a noun that is doing quite a lot of descriptive work on the cover, so when you're thinking about what image you want to use consider how it juxtaposes the title. Consider whether you are reinforcing the title with your image or contrasting or complimenting that message. Or whether by visualizing some other aspect of the book you can portray something more compelling. Any of these routes can work if handled well."

 

Solution

S�skind's Perfume is intense, eerie and atmospherically hallucinating. My imagery portrays beauty and disturbance, to mimic the crimes that Grenouille commits to obtain a brilliant perfume. The model, wearing ghostly make-up, can be interpreted as Laure and an embodiment of Grenouille's other grisly murders. The flowing hair, ribbons and golden thread woven into the model's hair, fit the description of the perfect odour and scented ribbons in Baldini's shop. To make my cover 'smell', I used coloured water and floral elements for this effect. I chose the typeface Georgia to complement the soft yet bold photography.