There seems to be a Danish theme to my work just lately. Firstly for Cambridge University Press, I have been working on an illustration and jacket design for a book about Maersk Line – the Danish shipping company. The Danish authors (employee and former employee of Maersk) document the history of the company to show how it has grown over the last 40 years to become the global success it is now. Not plugging it or anything!
The illustration concept was developed in-house at Maersk, at which point I took it on and recreated it from scratch, trying out different backgrounds and colours for the photos within the map. The idea is obviously the shipping routes between countries, with the focus being on people. The sepia tone of the main images mean they blend together nicely (no obvious division or special emphasis between the countries – that was specified) while having a bit more warmth and depth than black and white pictures (original concept), and they sit back slightly allowing the full colour images of peoples faces in the circles to stand forward.
I also couldn’t resist adding in a few Maersk logo stars, where the whoosh lines hit their intended target. The company corporate colours were used wherever possible, and typographically, I tried to use something similar to the Maersk branding. So it’s about as corporate it could be, without just slapping the logo across the front, and yet it’s still quite subtle.
Continuing with the Danish theme, I have been designing some covers for an academic publishing company in Copenhagen – Hans Reitzels Forlag, a part of the larger Gyldendal group.
I’ve done five covers so far, I hope there’ll be more. Each one has been a creative challenge (a nice challenge) to come up with a design concept, as well as the images and designs. I’m so used to being given images, or at least being told what sorts of images are required, it’s good to be pushed a little bit out of my comfort zone to come up with ideas on ethics or critical theory, once I’ve researched what they actually are!
More cover designs to come soon.
Zoe Naylor design & illustration 