Telling A Story On A Box Brief & Research

Brief

London 1887, in an alternate time line where the industrial revolution kept growing and growing, a time where steam power was the only source of power for the future in the eyes of inventors. As a result London was city of steam, a city where blimps roamed the skies, and a city where steam power was part of the Victorian culture.

Within this backdrop, newly promoted Detective Jacob Strider is working these dark, mist filled streets of this Alternate London where fraudsters, thieves and murderers lurk around every corner.

Reference Images

Images Sourced from Google images

The images below have been selected to draw in details such as clothing and hairstyles, right through to  the landscapes and architecture.

The first two are images from the popular television series "Ripper Street". I have chosen the show because of it's time period and setting which is around the 1880's. I was looking at the style of clothing that a Detective would typically wear around that time and the facial hair styles as well.

Steam Punk

Images Sourced from Google images

In the short brief I wrote, I was describing about a alternate style London. A London where the industrial revolution never stopped evolving in steam power. This was a nod to the art style known as Steam Punk. I wanted this to be cross between a Victorian Detective with a touch of steam punk madness, so I sourced some images off Google to see what wacky inventions people added to their clothing.

Steam Punk

Images Sourced from Google images

For the background of the game art work, I wanted to focus on a smog or steam filled heavily industrial London, so yet again I sourced some old images London within this time period for reference.

Steam Punk

Images Sourced from Google images

To add further details in to the image and to remind the viewer how this fictitious London isn't the same, I found some images of how fart people will take the word "Steam Punk" Theses images are perfect to add further interest to the image. You could also bring in a vehicle as a sort of a character that's apart of the protagonist, like the Bat mobile is to Batman.

Typography

Images Sourced from Google images & www.anewhype.com

I clearly would need a title for my experimental front cover, so I looked up a couple of images from the two styles I was looking for. The two styles clearly show so many similarities that I'm sure that the Victorian era lends parts of it's fashions and styles to Steam Punk. The fonts have distinct imperfection because they where most definitely hand drawn plates for press. I notice how that are all uppercase lettering with sans serifs on the ends. I like the scrolling patterns around them as well but I don't see how that could work for a gritty detective theme. The overall point was to observe and put this into practise with out getting carried away with it.