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And how did these ‘modern masterpieces’ come about? Graphic designer
and photographer Richie Fahey takes up the story: “Penguin decided to
start with CASINO ROYALE. I read the book, researched old James Bond
covers, and made some sketches. I gave the sketches to Roseanne Serra,
the art director for the series, and she presented them to Penguin and
the Ian Fleming Estate. Together they chose one of the sketches, which
consisted of: Vesper, nude, standing on the left side of the cover; Le Chiffre dealing baccarat with two players and James Bond in the
foreground within a panel in the middle of the cover; title on lower
right and lan Fleming's name in the upper-right-hand corner. However,
the Ian Fleming estate specified that they did not want naked women or
James Bond on any covers.
With the help of my wife Maria Cristina, who did the hair, make-up and
styling for the series, Vesper was photographed in a black cocktail
dress and James Bond was photographed with low-key lighting so he
could not be recognised. For Le Chiffre, a friend was photographed
with my wife and I. Then I shot everything in black and white on a
medium format camera.
From the contact sheets from the shoot, I selected images and
composed different versions to show to Roseanne. We picked one
version and I made 11x14 black and white prints of Vesper, Le Chiffre
at the Baccarat table, and James Bond. I then coloured them with photo
oil paints using q-tips and bits of cotton balls wrapped around a
toothpick. After they dried, I scanned and arranged them and tried
different typefaces for the title and Ian Fleming's name. I showed
this to Roseanne and we chose the typefaces that worked best. However,
Roseanne thought the cover was lacking something. We decided maybe
falling playing cards would be good, so I went and photographed,
printed, coloured and scanned falling cards. Roseanne showed this
version to Penguin and the Ian Fleming Estate. The Ian Fleming Estate
did not like the cover (I think they really liked the British versions
and mine are very different from them) but Penguin and the Fleming
Estate were able to work it out by taking James Bond off the cover.
The rest of the covers would basically go through the same process and
follow the same guidelines we created from CASINO ROYALE: Ian Fleming
in the upper right, colourful background, panel in the middle, a
female character, the villain and an element from the story with my
inspirations coming from the story and old James Bond covers. |
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