Emma Flint

EVOKING THE WORLD OF THE BOOK

To create an author site which feels weighty and significant when there is only one novel to work with can be a challenge.  In Emma’s case, the richness of the novel inspired a strategy which worked well.

The novel is powerfully evocative of time and place and we used this quality as a starting point for the design.  The lyrical quality of Emma’s writing was already being commented on by reviewers so we chose some key quotations — ones which we guessed that readers would highlight on their kindle — and displayed these over images which were carefully selected to create the mood of the novel and reflect the era, without intruding too much into the visual world which individual readers create for themselves.

The images are treated with a kodak film filter to give them the feel of 1960s America and colour adjusted to bring them together tonally and to ensure they would work with the colour scheme.

A CLEAN, CLEAR LAYOUT

Because the covers complement each other, we decided to feature them both, rather than using the more normal option of a timed slider which switches from one to the other.

The layout is simple and clean, using content blocks for video, audio as well as text. The text units are scrollable so that longer articles work across a range of devices and orientations.

The background colour adds richness to the site and complements the image treatment. 

The site uses a custom typeface in a condensed style. It has a hard-edged, slightly architectural feel that is good for a crime novel set in New York. It also balances the soft, slightly dreamy quality of the images.