A Clockwork Orange Book Cover - Initial Ideas

The brief states that it wants the cover to have an "imaginative concept and original interpretation", and I feel like basing the design on the existentialist undertones of the story fits this well. In doing this it's also avoiding any obvious links with famous scenes from the film such as the white milk bar or Alex strapped in a straight jacket with his eyes held open. This is important because it needs to be clear that the design is for a book cover not a DVD cover or a film poster.

I wanted to concentrate on the strange name of the film as well, which comes from the saying "as queer as a clockwork orange", a phrase that describes the strangeness of something that's appears normal on the outside but is different on the inside. This will force the cover to be heavily typographic rather than image based, which is probably a good thing as the brief specifies strong use of typography. This again keeps me away from using any famous scenes from the film. 

I made some notes of ideas that could be useful themes for the cover or that would benefit the cover with their inclusion after starting from Existentialism and the phrase 'as queer as a clockwork orange' interpreted in the context of the story. These were:

• Use of the golden ratio
• Futura as the typeface
• Unbalanced and imperfect layout
• Customising the typography
• Large amounts of space
• An suggestion of a struggle between good and bad