This artwork was created for volume 4 of The Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith published by Night Shade Books. The graphic designer for the publisher will mute and darken the excessively vibrant colors so that the eyes of potential readers will not be injured . . . and portions of the mundane imagery will be obscured by innovative graphical devices (e.g., color stripes). The statues on the left are carefully positioned so that the largest possible barcode can conceal them. The strategic placement of the elements on the back cover also allow the designer's name to appear at exactly the same size as the name of the illustrator, lest anyone suppose that the months of effort that it takes to create an illustration is somehow more significant than the half-day that it takes a designer to craft a cover layout. All of these measures hint at the impossibility of creating an effective layout if the illustration is left unweakened.Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Art for Clark Ashton Smith vol. 4
This artwork was created for volume 4 of The Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith published by Night Shade Books. The graphic designer for the publisher will mute and darken the excessively vibrant colors so that the eyes of potential readers will not be injured . . . and portions of the mundane imagery will be obscured by innovative graphical devices (e.g., color stripes). The statues on the left are carefully positioned so that the largest possible barcode can conceal them. The strategic placement of the elements on the back cover also allow the designer's name to appear at exactly the same size as the name of the illustrator, lest anyone suppose that the months of effort that it takes to create an illustration is somehow more significant than the half-day that it takes a designer to craft a cover layout. All of these measures hint at the impossibility of creating an effective layout if the illustration is left unweakened.
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1 comment:
It’s wonderful to see the image in its entirety (sans bar codes and spine delineations). Thank you for sharing your work! I own the book and for me a lot of the appreciation (when not reading the stories) is in the layout and the craft of the art. It's sometimes difficult to see how the back and front panel images join, so I count it as a favour that you have allowed us to see the original piece.
Do you intend to display the images from the rest of the CAS books on your blog - without the layout adjustments? I'd be really interested to see them - intact - as it were. Cheers. G.
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