This is the story and processes of creating ideas and sketches up to the final cover design and artwork for my new Picture Atlas for Collins.

 

I had produced some successful artwork, design and covers for Collins Glasgow from 2013-2014 and, in May of 2014, the head designer, Kevin Robbins and the Managing Editor, Anne Mahon approached me to see if I would be interested in being involved in designing and producing the artwork and content for a new Collins Picture Atlas to replace a previous edition.

 

The older edition used cartographic maps as a background on the page with various Collins stock clipart from other titles. It was felt that there was a lack of consistency of style using detailed maps with various styled artworks for places, animals, etc.. Kevin and Anne thought there was a need to create a new atlas with a strong fresh style for the primary market and designed and drawn by just one person for consitency. I jumped at the chance to produce a whole title by myself.

After producing a sample design for the internal pages and when this was approved by Anne, I was then asked to come up with ideas for the look of the cover. I first worked on the idea of a small child floating in space looking down at our planet and checking the various continents with the material in the book.

 

I produced two rough sketches. I presented them, with two colour visuals to flesh out the look and feel of the background and typography. Anne and Kevin felt that the ideas were too similar to covers of atlases from other publishers already on the market. What was needed was a strong, new individual iconic style. It was also felt that the ideas didn't reflect the style that had been approved for the internal pages. So... back to the drawing board.

After showing the sketches and the colour ideas (below), Kevin and Anne decided that, to make the atlas stand out from the competition, the cover should avoid having a map or globe as the main image. The sales team at Collins needed a great deal of persuading about this as, traditionally, atlases always, and I must stress always, have maps or globes on the cover. 

 

As this was to be a departure from the more traditional type of early years atlas the need was to make the cover exciting and full of energy and to show the diversity of our world. And... to quote the designer, with a slight chuckle, 'No pressure, but we want you to come up with a strong enough identity to take Collins Children's Atlases into the future as market leaders'. A little bit of pressure then.

I felt a little lost when the above ideas were rejected as I couldn't imagine what else I could put on the cover of an atlas.

 

It was the head designers encouraging words to, 'Just go crazy and draw whatever you would like to see on a cover about the Earth' that kick started my imagination. The next morning after taking my partner to the stables where her horse is kept I was driving home and my mind wandered as I tried to think of what the hell I could put on the cover that would get the big thumbs up from Kevin and Anne. I started to imagine all of the various parts of the world as a set on the stage of, say, the Muppet Theatre (stay with me). I imagined various parts of the globe; deserts, swamps, seas, savannas, etc. being put together as flat boards layered behind and above each other. Google eyed indigenous animals from each of these regions would hold up their own part of the set with their claws/hoofs/wings. A variety of famous buildings could be scattered around the scenery. Below id the sketch I rapidly put together, scared that the idea would escape me before I made it solid on the page.

The reaction from Anne and Kevin was unanimous. They loved it and felt that this was a great direction to carry forward. The idea needed a lot of work and tweaking but I felt relieved i had something to build on. Anne felt that the animals took up too much of a focus and made it look like something more for a nature title not an atlas. The focus needed to be more on landscapes and landmarks.

 

I created the sketch below and quickly emailed this to the team before starting on the more detailed work. Just to double check that this was the right direction to move in. What would be the final look of the cover was slowly coming together. 

... and here is the first ever sketch of the little green car on a perilous island.

This is the first detailed design with most of the final elements in place. After first drawing the scene, I felt there wasn't a starting point for the viewer to begin looking over the various landscapes. It needed something, a guide to lead the viewer across and up the cover.

 

Thinking of the Indiana Jones films and their use of old maps and a dotted line to show the main characters journeys across the globe, I envisaged a vehicle doing the same thing, weaving it's way through the landscapes, meeting objects and animals on it's way. This is when I introduced the little green 4x4 car (probably a Landrover) to create the narrative.

 

Anne had loved the stripy line I had used for the internal map design. She wondered if I could incorporate it somewhere on the cover. I did that alright! This first design, below, show's the journey the car takes from a scientific station in Antarctica to the far north of the Arctic Ocean and to the title. The font used here had been used for another title and Collins initially liked the style. But then Kevin wondered if it would benefit the overall design if I created a bespoke text style to go with the overall design.

... and here is the first ever sketch of the little green car on a perilous island.

Below is my first attempt at creating a hand drawn title. I felt, overall, it was really starting to come together. the aeroplane was later removed as it didn't add anything to the story and, it was felt, would confuse the reader's journey on the page. There are notes written on the artwork of other elements that I thought may be added later. 

After much tweaking and reworking from myself and Kevin the final design was complete. I was very relieved that it was finally finished and approved. It had been an amazing artwork to produce but very time consuming. I thought that now I could concentrate more on the internal pages. But Kevin reminded me that a back cover would also need producing along side the front (!).

Here is my first idea for the back cover. I pictured the cars journey climbing up a narrow column on the left of the page. While the introduction, barcode and other information would sit on the right of this. Kevin felt that it looked too conventional and asked me if I could try and include elements from the front onto the back page as one continuous panorama. The title and intro text were placed within a circle with elements from the internals placed around to soften the edge. In retrospect, that blue band does look too overpowering.

... and here is the final front, spine and back. If you look carefully you can see a man waving to the penguins from the base of the spine. This small artwork replaced a penguin I had drawn there originally. Kevin and Anne, with some humour, thought that the penguin was in eaxctly the same place that the publishers Penguin put their famous icon. Oops. I very happily replaced it.

I am very proud of this cover, I felt like part of a very strong team with Kevin and Anne with their guidance and experience on this project. Great people and very supportive. I hope the book is well received on it's launch on the 21st May of this year.

The cover has been made into an interactive web page. It is fantastic to see the cover animated and the little car going on his journey north.

https://www.behance.net/stevevans