Jamaica inn was an interesting puzzle of a cover to solve. The female lead was strong but the marauders luring ships to crash in the shallows and then rob and pillage was another strong vision to go after. As already set in Rebecca, the first novel from the series, the approach had to feel contemporary with a nod to the high calibre of a writer that du Maurier is. So I set out to find a classical painting of a ship in stormy seas whilst looking for an appropriate image of a woman. For a while I was experimenting with getting them to blend in a double exposure way but then I ended up with what felt to be cleaner “mask” approach which allowed for both to be legible as ideas. To pair down the literal drama of the sea painting I knocked it back in black and white and to add to the tension I tilted the axis of the paining so the ship was upright but the sea was at an angle. Then I had to retouch the ship painting so the silhouette had enough contrast where needed to stand out against the white background. Again, as I have done with Rebecca’s cover, I added an outline to elevate the monochrome and to add a sense of importance that this classic deserved.
