Insides of the star

A detail of the back of the cover:

Under a bright, happy star

The cover in flesh (but without flash...). More info in the publisher's website HERE.

A new cover

The production started in August so that after several versions a cover for a selection of Christmas short stories by top Polish writers was published in two versions - silver and gold. When I rushed to get it while in Kraków, in two bookshops I was told that it was sold out! A silver version was on display in Znak's own bookshop but the place was closed for Christmas so I had to get it somewhere elese ( I got a gold version and I promise to show it to you soon).

The ribbon is actually a photograph! The stars were designed in Illustrator and are based on folk christmas tree decorations.

Baranczak

I was extremely honoured to design covers for a new edition of Stanislaw Baranczak essays. Unfortunately the author and editor wanted something less flamboyant, more delicate, much simpler - so not quite in the style I have introduced. However I am still satisfied with the design (the name of the author was formed like a logo) and pictures which were created for the cover with the use of iconic Polish posters from the 50s and 60, courtesy of Mr Dydo Poster Gallery in Krakow.

Superman

After listening to doom and gloom comments on Alistair Darling's new Budget (my favourite nasty comment today was on Radio 4 that the only thing in the British economy still in the black is the Chancellor's eyebrows) I am afraid that we might need some help from Superman.

This is a bookcover for Umberto Eco's essays "The Myth of Superman" where I created a drawing of an arm and designed the cover. I sometimes work in Illustrator and this is one of my favourite examples of working with this programme.

Alaska - the frontispiece

Alaska - continuation

I designed the front page and also dividing pages of the chapters.

Looking for Alaska - picture heavy

I am haunted by a tummy bug at the moment so no posts for couple of days. However I have managed to crawl out of bed to post several images of John Green's book (previously here) in REAL life :  

Stanislaw Lem

This portrait of Stanislaw Lem was not destined to appear on the book cover of a Lem's work encyclopedia.

I cannot help but wonder how the word "Sepulka" was translated into English - or maybe it was not translated at all and left in Polish. Apparently it was almost impossible to translate the word "Awruk!" that Lem invented as a battlefield cry of one of the nations in "Robot fairytales" - please do try reading it backwards in English translation as "tickuf!" which Michael Kandel came up with and soon you will understand why other translators failed...

Unfortunatley the author's wife did not like the image and I had to redesign the book cover using a photo from the author's archive.

P.S. More to learn about the author of "Solaris" here.

The Power of Myth - how the book came out:

Joseph Campbell and The Power of Myth book cover design

I was really happy to be commissioned with designing a book cover for the first Polish edition of The Power of Myth by Jospeh Campbell. Campbell's ideas inspired creators of Star Wars, Matrix and even The Lion King.
The images of medieval creatures were obtained from an image library but I needed an ultimate hero, a mythical figure to balance the linear pattern of the bootom of the design. That is how Minotaure ended up on the top of the red rectangle.

Cheerleader

I am not very keen on cheerleadering so it might have been visible in my illustration proposal for a book about one. I wanted to do something more naughty than that! Ah well, back to work...