The Lady in the Lake by Raymond Chandler

This is the third, and probably final, post about Tom Adams’ paintings for the works of Raymond Chandler. Below is how The Lady in the Lake appeared when published. Adams left a quiet space at the top of each composition for the title and byline, and in those days that was all that was needed (no excessive marketing text).

I think the paintings still represent the books’ content well, but the type is, well, a little 1972. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Courtesy of Tom Adams’ website, the image without any type.

Exploring more modern type treatments, I did up a few layouts.

This one uses the DIN typeface and a bit of transparency. The lizard bottom right is the Vintage Crime/Black Lizard logo. Vintage is the current American Chandler publisher, with the books released as trade paperbacks.

Hits of UV gloss varnish on the type and logo, with a matte varnish on the image, would finish this nicely.

The typefaces in this version aren’t exactly new, Berthold Akzidenz Grotesk and Bauer Bodoni, but the understated treatment allowed by the trade paperback’s larger format and the transparent bar would work well. Chandler’s name and the circle on the logo would be standard Pantone silver.