News & Blog

This summer (if I’m correct) (edit: in stores July 25th) the second book of 24SEVEN, edited by that young strapping lad Ivan Brandon, will be released by Image Comics. Its an awesome book (I say this in blind faith and based on the talent involved, because I haven’t actually seen it yet edit: I have it in my hands now, and it is indeed awesome. Go buy a copy now!) so make sure you pick it up from your local comic shop when you have the chance.

I thought it would be fun to show you how the cover- and book design came together.
Before I got involved with the book, Ivan and I started talking, both being fans of each other’s work, and wondering when or if there’d be a chance to collaborate on something.

Cue Ashley Wood, with whom I’ve been collaborating for some years now, who turned out to be doing the cover art and design for 24SEVEN #2. Ash had no objections to me handling the design part, so at that moment I became involved with the book.


Ashley Wood’s cover art with his initial design (left). The “clean” cover art (right)

Right. Now it was time to start designing a logo. Adam Hughes (the cover artist of 24SEVEN #1) had designed a logo for that book, and Ivan was happy to see if I could come in from a different angle. I’d been playing with a lot of “machine type” design and typography lately (on personal projects), and the robot world of 24SEVEN seemed a perfect fit.

My initial logo concepts, inspired by LED displays and the like

My first batch of ideas were all variations on LED-based digits. I was looking for a quite fat looking logo that was quite rigid and modular in design – keeping in mind the subject matter of the book. I sent these to Ivan, and although he liked the designs as they were, he felt they didn’t suit the book. He liked the bold, clean concept of Ash’s design and wanted to keep it within those lines.

OK. Back to square one. Ash used Akzidenz Grotesk in his design (I take small pleasure in the fact that I turned him onto the typeface, and now he’s using it on almost all his books). I felt that Akzidenz (although it’s my favourite typeface) didn’t sit well on the cover. I was still hell-bent on my “machine-type” idea, and Akzidenz is too elegant for that.

My clock and the immediate designs that came out of it

So while taking a break I started looking at the clock in our kitchen/diner, and the idea of the “robo-clock” was born.

One idea was emulating a neon store sign that would integrate into the cover art

After having designed the basic lettershapes (based on Helvetica Neue), I tried some different approaches, and pretty much settled for a circular shape, and started designing the “body” of the clock, with elements of battery plugs and cables, and started on the actual cover design.

The final 24SEVEN logo – the “full” version on the left and the “light” version on the right.

I designed 4 versions of the cover, alternating between the “full” version of the logo (the clock) and the “light” version (just the type element.

After showing the different cover ideas to Ivan, we both settled for option 2, feeling that it struck the right balance – bold enough to grab your eye, but not overwhelming the art. From there the back cover and spine were designed, which gave me the chance to add the full logo as well as a graphic element.

The final 24SEVEN cover.