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SIX SILENT KILLINGS
Key Art
[CREDITS]
Design: Abbie Edwards
Design Direction: Johnny Ace
Retouching: Lee Binding
The brief was to create compelling key art for Six Silent Killings, a true crime documentary exploring the mysterious disappearance of six women in the Wicklow Mountains, Ireland. The artwork needed to evoke a sense of unease, tragedy, and mystery - capturing the haunting nature of the story while treating the subject matter with sensitivity and respect.
The creative process began with exploring multiple visual directions to find the right balance between sensitivity and impact. Various concepts were developed that leaned into themes of absence, isolation, and nature as a silent witness. You can view several of these initial iterations below, which helped shape the final composition and tone of the artwork.
Several creative routes were explored during the development of the key art, with two directions in particular emerging as front-runners: a symbolic raven concept and a more naturalistic leaves-based design. Both aimed to convey the unsettling nature of the story, but client feedback steered the direction toward something that felt grounded in reality and more in line with a true crime documentary rather than a high-concept thriller. The final approved route combined the eerie, atmospheric quality of the raven with the more organic, tactile feel of the leaves - shifting away from dark horror toward something more subtly unnerving and documentary-led.
In response to feedback, the final key art leaned into real-world texture and tone, with the raven concept removed in favour of a more natural, symbolic use of leaves. The composition features Annie McCarrick, the first known victim, partially obscured by a swirl of leaves - representing her disappearance and the tragic, unresolved nature of the case. The tone was carefully adjusted to feel less horror-driven and more reflective, with a focus on authenticity, Irish landscape cues and emotional subtlety.
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