Beyond: Stolen Flames, Forbidden Fruit & Telephone Booths – 826 Valencia

A couple months ago I worked with the folks at 826 Valencia to help do the book cover design and some internal illustrations for this years Young Authors’ Book Project, “Beyond: Stolen Flames, Forbidden Fruit and Telephone Booths“. The book was layed out and designed by Jody Worthington… who also supplied the pics above. Thanks.

The final copy looks pretty good w/ a foil-stamped cover and an intro written by Khaled Hosseini (author of “The Kite Runner“). It will be available at 826 Valencia stores and on Amazon.com… in a month or so.

The concept of the literature and for the cover was the merging of ancient mythology with modern times. What makes a “myth” or a “hero” nowadays is no longer as epic as it once was. It seems people are finding mythical storylines in their day-to-day lives. You don’t have to fight a dragon to be a hero.

With the first round of designs I experimented with the idea of mirroring ancient imagery with that of modern times. I wanted to choose items that seem to have become of great importance to people now… technology, commuting, etc. In the end it didn’t feel powerful enough and kinda cheesy.

I am a big fan of masks, espcecially Pacific Northwest Indian & African masks. We thought the mask was a good route to go as it could represent anyone and has an ancient lore feel to it. With that, below are 2 examples in which I mishmashed a bunch of mythilogical and modern imagery.