Category: Anatomy of....
I recently completed a poster redesign for Logan’s Run, as part of the Now Showing exhibit curated by Darren Firth/Wear It With Pride and on display at the Cosh gallery in London until the 16th of June 2008.
When Darren invited me to participate I immediately chose Logan’s Run. It’s one of my favourite science fiction movies and a prime example of the dystopian theme in SF movies that were so typical of the 70s – think of Westworld, Silent Running, Beneath The Planet Of The Apes, THX 1138, etc…
Logan’s Run stood out to me, because while it presents a grim future, its also sexy, camp, and very stylized in terms of production design and presenting the future. As an aside – I’ve always felt, and still do, that The Future looks more alien in films from that decade, than, lets say, Minority Report. Back then it seemed they really tried to come up with visuals that were really *out there*, never mind if they were actually feasible, as opposed to the current trend in SF (in movies at least) where they try to make it all believable – resulting in visions that still impress, but they don’t look alien to us.
Logan’s Run 1 sheet, 1976
Anyway, back to Logan’s Run. What was I going to do? The original 1976 one sheet is a classic and so synonymous with the film that I wanted to avoid any similarities with it. Instead of presenting the typical collage shot of the movie, I wanted to pair it down to the single element that ran through the movie: the life clock.
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Yes, after a long hiatus I present you with another “Anatomy of..” post. This time I’ll talk about a new book Liz & I designed for Mam Tor™ Publishing: St. Cyborg’s by Nick Wray.
St. Cyborg’s is a collection of short SF stories, all centering around the titular institution. The title, to me at least, implied something of a catholic boys school and I started thinking along the lines of using an iconic image based on religious symbolism but with a contemporary/Sci-Fi slant.
The previous “Anatomy of…” got a lot of feedback (i.e. people seem to find it interesting how I design), so here’s another one. I’ll try to make this a regular feature on the blog as long as I find stuff that’s interesting enough.
Anyway. Worry Doll was the first graphic novel published by Mam Tor™ Publishing. Written and Illustrated by Australian artist Matt Coyle. Matt, shopping around for a publisher got in touch with Liam (the Mam Tor Editor-In-Chief), Liam fell in love with it, and subsequently I got the task of designing the book. Since my book designing skills are practically non-existent (i.e. I haven’t opened Quark in 4 years, and up until then an InDesign virgin), I asked my fiancée Liz - art director at Tank Magazine - to help me out with the book…
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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.
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