Typefaces: Hand Drawn, Memphis and Bodoni for flaps.
Around the World in 80 Days
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
From the Earth to the Moon
Jim talks about his process.
In the illustration department at the University of the Arts, a major portion of the senior year is dedicated to a 4-part thesis project. The project culminates in a class-wide exhibit and competition for the William H. Ely award. Thusly is this project affectionately known as “The Ely”. Each student must choose a market to work in, and prepare a project proposal.
Being equal parts book-nerd and design-nerd, I naturally decided to re-design some classic Jules Verne novels. I‘m a big Verne fan, but a chance to re-design any classic book is always exciting. Classics usually allow for a more personal interpretation, since most people are already vaguely familiar with the premise of the books, and I didn’t have to compete with one well-known cover, as I might have with a more recent book.
I knew right away that I wanted to incorporate some extra elements into this series. My first idea was to have a uniform construction for all four, consisting of a patterned jacket that would unfold into a poster, and a book-band.
I still like the idea of this series, but it didn’t really allow me to go as far as I wanted to with the concepts for each book.
Still clinging to the idea of uniformity, I tried a more illustrative approach, with each book featuring a half-jacket and full-color cover. At this point I was only focusing on rough sketches the first two books of the series: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Journey to the Center of the Earth.
Once again, the uniform construction really limited the concepts. My instructor, Joe Didomenico, suggested I forget about the construction and focus solely on concept for each book. That night I filled a sketchbook with brand new ideas, and finally things started to come together
The breakthrough came when I decided to handle each book with a different construction (an ambitious and tiring task, I would soon realize). For 20,000 Leagues I stuck with the half-jacket idea. The idea to use Captain Nemo’s diving helmet on the jacket, with the emerging tentacles works well to hint at Nemo’s subtle, sinister nature, while the sunken ruins and monster squid hidden below the jacket mimic the book’s constant atmosphere of mystery and exploration.
For Journey to the Center of the Earth, I decided to print the soil color on a jacket of translucent film. The film, placed against the light colors of the cover, shows dinosaur bones and fossils. Printed on the cover itself, and barely visible through the film, are some more peculiar artifacts, like giant skeletons and weapons, which hint at some of the more surprising discoveries made in the story.
Working with these new concepts, my sketches came together pretty quickly:
From this point, the rest of the work went pretty smoothly. For Around the World in 80 Days, I decided to use a spin-wheel featuring destinations visited by the characters. The idea is that as you read the book, you can turn the dial to match your progress. I wasn’t too happy with the trompe l’ouille look of the cover sketch with envelopes and money. Luckily, my brilliant girlfriend Sara suggested making the cover one big stamp, since I was already using postage as a theme. This beautiful solution really pulled the piece together.
I had a specific Idea for From the Earth to the Moon right away, and sketched it out pretty quickly. I stayed with the “interactive papercraft” idea, and used a sliding tab to reveal the rocket. After a day or two, however, I wasn’t happy with how the hand and rocket were pointing downward, so I switched the position of the Earth and the Moon for a better read.
The Ely exhibit will show at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia from April 6th to 20th, with the reception on April 18th. The show will be full of talented young illustrators, so if you can make it to Philadelphia, you should really come and see it.
