Category: Process.
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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I’ve been involved in pitches lately, to some designers the bane of their existence, to other a relished opportunity to shine. I’m a bit stuck between those extremes. Pitching always involves a bit of guess work. Usually you’ll end up in a three way pitch against two other designers or agencies and most likely - depending what industry you’re in - you have a vague idea of possible “opponents” which makes the game a lot more interesting.
Sometimes we’re competing against an agency that throws 20 people on a pitch and present the client with 4 or more fully realised concepts, mood boards, brand strategies and anything else you can’t think of. We don’t have that physical man power to compete with those behemoths - although we’ve won our fare share of pitches against them. Of course, in similar scenarios we’ve also lost some - it all comes down to the client and what they are looking for, but there are some surefire ways to impress the potential client.
DO:
Keep it simple
I’ve never written more than necessary. It doesn’t mean I’m lazy, I just don’t believe in overselling yourself with fluff and unnecessary hype.
Less is more
When you’re invited to pitch there’s generally speaking 2 scenarios: they’ll ask for a written outline/approach, or they want to see some visuals. If they want visuals keep it to 3 proposals maximum. Any more and it shows you can’t make up your mind.
Follow your gut instinct
Usually pitches require a fast turnaround. Brief comes in on Monday, response expected by Thursday. This leaves you with little time to be creative. Often I just follow the first idea that pops in my head seeing a brief and run with it, 95% of the time I’m on the money. One of the few usefull things they thaught me in art college: always go with your first instinct. The more you fret over your idea, the more you’ll water it down and it will lose its impact.
Listen to the client
This sounds like an obvious one, but too often designers get the idea in their head to turn the brief to their hand and ignore what the client wants in favour of what they want.
The next time: What not to do.
So I just wrapped up the design for the Worry Doll convention poster – which will be used at the upcoming Bristol Expo later this month. Usually with these things the turnaround is / has to be pretty quick; and although I can do pretty much what I want for all the Mam Tor™ stuff, this poster is a good example of adding and substracting to make sure everyone is happy.
The Worry Doll book which went on sale in February this year has been quite a success. The book got a lot of mainstream press coverage across the globe. So for the upcoming Con, Liam (Mam Tor’s publisher/Ed-in Chief) wanted to capitalize on the press the book had received to advertise it at our stand with an A0 sized poster.
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