David Drummond

This is the art for a cover I am working on now. Book is about Shakespeare and how he confounded the pretensions and designs of kings in his plays.

Journal design

This is a redesign for The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science. I went for a type only solution with a colour/graphic variable that would distinguish each issue.

This is a magazine illustration I am working on now. Article is about how we are exposed to music almost every waking hour of the day.

An unused concept I did for a book about an unusual love affair.

Graphic Design Solutions

Robin Landa

Great book! It is the best book out there on design and the design process. Josh Chen from Chen Design Associates did a really great cover and interior design.

Communication Arts Design Annual 2010

Kinda cool. Red Squrrel logo got into the CA Design Annual this year.

A book within a book. From the brief: SylviaWeisler is under contract with a small publisher to write a non-fiction book about personals advertising. . She focuses on the middle-aged and older group who utilize print media rather than on the “too vast territory” of twenty-somethings and the Internet. Some of the characters remain interviewees—material for Sylvia’s book; others, however, enter the author’s private life and become enmeshed in the plot.

From the brief continued: "There is a character in the book called Gladwell Alcox, a spoof of Malcolm Gladwell. We thought we should play this up on the cover, as if the book were a non-fiction book on the writing of personals. We saw a banner running across the bottom corner saying something like 'With a Foreword by Gladwell Alcox' or 'Foreword by Gladwell Alcox'

Sometimes I really like getting a clear directive and then seeing what I can do with it. I know I have said this before but I also like taking a hackneyed visual symbol like an arrow through a heart and seeing if there could still be a new way of doing it.

One more for the Salon des refusés

Wasn't the right approach for this book in the end but still kind of intriguing.

This cover took more than a couple of attempts to get it finalized. The first concept made it into the catalogue with reservations from the authors. The second was good to go right up until the cover was about to be sent to printer when it hit a snag as well. I had to come up with something new right away and thought this could work. I went with a strictly graphic approach but it wasn't coming together. Adding the shadows made it come to life as well as the gloss lamination which gives it a bit of extra punch.

And another maple leaf. I did this a while back and it is just going into production now.

Book Review illustration

Illustration for New York Times Sunday Book Review

The Maple Leaf

I have done so many covers over the years that deal with Canada as subject matter. It runs the gamut and covers issues such as federalism, foreign policy, native peoples, the courts, language rights and human rights. Each time I sit down with the brief I ask the same question. Is there a way to use the maple leaf in a new way?

Heterosyncrasies

Karma Lochrie

This is a modern day Romance for immigrants, for frequent travelers, and for restless and rootless spirits. (from the brief). The title refers to an unexpected moment of homesickness.

Parker Series

12th installment in the series.

I was talking to someone recently about designing book covers. The easy part for me is getting the cover concept down. You launch these cover designs out there and once they are approved you tend to put them out of your mind for a while. The hard part is that they all come back months later for final production and if there are a lot at the same time it certainly keeps you on your toes. Often they have to be rephotographed and finessed in photoshop which is time consuming and then there is the layout of the full cover with all the elements put in place.

I always get asked how many covers I do a year. One day I will sit down and figure it our. It's a lot of work, for sure, and it becomes hard to plan your schedule because you never know which cover is going to come winging back for final production at any particular time. I have to say though that I do feel it is important to have many different creative projects on the the go. The creative faculty is like a muscle that you have to keep flexing.

I layed out this cover with a more restrained back cover and spine treatment but felt that it was lacking. I liked the idea of re-using the index cards for the back cover copy as well.

Beau in repose

This is novel that features a talking crow. In an earlier sketch I had showed a mink diving under water but there was just something so incongruous about a crow standing in water that was a better fit the tone of the book.

McGill-Queen's Fall Catalogue cover

After all these years with probably 30 catalogue covers under my belt I figured it was time to discover my inner scot. Yes that is the McGill tartan on those sexy shads.

Men’s Health Magazine

Illustration work.

The author suggested using an old map of Canada in this way - highlighting specific regions. I was almost convinced that there was no way to use a map on a cover in an original way any more but I thought this could be interesting.

New poetry cover. From the brief: "a cartographer's log of an inner landscape"

Maybe a little on the obvious side but when I found the image it seemed like a perfect fit with the title.

New packaging project I am working on. There will be a selection of different oils available. It will use a system of two stickers per bottle. Each oil will have a different bottle colour.

The book deals with the execution of a Chinese sugar smuggler in the 1930's.

Approval pending

Wire Art

My hugely talented wife, Gail McGowan, has started a blog to show off her wire scuptures. This is a recent one she did. There are a bunch of others she is in the process of photographing.

approval pending

I had a really long list of authors to include on this one and wanted to find an unusual way of doing it.

This is a photo illustration I just did for the New York Times Magazine. It is part of their "key" series where they ask designers to interpret what "key" means to them. From the initial brief: "Many artists and designers have found it useful to come at this project from a personal vantage point using their own personal keys or places they’ve lived or buildings that have meaning to them as a starting point."

I had two directions that I felt were strong but were still lacking the personal hook. The first showed the impression of my house key in my wallet. The second was a collection of key chains.

I decided to create a three dimensional key with parts of my home that had meaning for me and defined where I live. Among the objects there is a Quebec license plate, an old fishing thermos that belonged to my grandfather, a kilt with the Drummond tartan, a glass door knob, an old milk bottle (I live in a dairy farming part of Quebec) and the actual key for the front door to my house. The whole thing is held together by baler twine which is the duct tape of working farms. The final photo was taken by the amazing Tom Schierlitz.