Literary Classics

Services: Illustration
Illustration & Design: Aaron Johnson, Derek Anderson & Kai Carpenter
Creative Direction: Joel Anderson

The Project

After creating lots of travel poster art depicting our favorite destinations, we wanted to create a series of posters to celebrate our favorite books. We chose classic, public domain titles and rendered cover designs that would look great as wall decor for literary enthusiasts, teachers, and bookworms.

The Challenge

All of these famous titles have been adorned with different versions of cover art over the years—many of them as masterful as the stories inside the covers. So we needed to create a fresh approach to these time-honored classics that would feel new while staying true to the era when the original story was told.

The Solution

We spread the work out among three of our favorite artists: staff artists Aaron Johnson and Derek Anderson, and contract artist Kai Carpenter. Kai’s oil paintings felt right for certain titles, and Derek and Aaron’s classic flat art style was a perfect fit for others.

Concepts

There are many ways to compose a cover design. The most straightforward method is to illustrate a scene from the book, or create a collage of scenes and key characters. Book covers should shout at people from 10 feet away and invite them to come closer and pick up the book. They should tell everyone why this book is a good investment… they should prove to folks that you CAN judge a book by its cover.