LIFE ON EARTH



Creating an illustrated cover for the 40th-Anniversary republication of Sir David Attenborough‘s ‘Life on Earth’.

My design includes 40 different species across the cover and endpapers:
- 19 of which have been discovered in the last 40 years and named in Sir David’s honour.
- 20 species that have been declared extinct by the IUCN between 1979-2019.
- And Sir David representing the species of the Homo sapiens.



"ELEGANT & BEAUTIFUL" - SIR DAVID ATTENBOROUGH





I was lucky enough to be able to send Sir David a copy of my re-designed book, and he kindly replied with a letter and signed copy of my cover.



The DETAILS





Placing the frog on the spine refers to the previous two book covers; where the frog became the icon of the series. This, with the use of the original 1979 typography, makes reference to the first publication.


The gold lines in the background refer to Charles Darwin’s first sketches on the theory of evolution: visually linking everything together. This element of the design provided a challenge for printing, but I was determined to keep the gold foiling as it was integral to my design.



The illustrations





All 40 of the illustrations were created using a standard Bic ballpoint pen. The originals measure approximately 10-15cm and took from 1-4 hours per illustration to complete.




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