High-concept covers

The easyJet Traveller team continues to make life as difficult as possible for itself by attempting to make each monthly cover ‘high concept’. To date we’ve had…

the 3D print out cover…

the knitted jumper cover…

the graffiti cover…

the cake cover…

the food map cover…

the let’s make our own board game cover…

the custom-made toy cover…

…and the Usain Bolt cobbled together from rubbish cover.

For March the story that needed illustrating was about creating the perfect family holiday, which, of course, starts with crayons, string and glue.

It’s a lovely piece of work. Art director Mat Wiggins has a real talent for sourcing appropriate illustrators that carries throughout the magazine. Also inside this issue are fun spot illustrations by Ryan Chapman livening up an airline-requested explanation of what happens when you drop your spare foreign coinage in the seatback charity bag:

Ryan’s got previous with easyJet Traveller having supplied illustrations for the magazine’s food column in the past (he’s also worked for the likes of Esquire, The Independent on Sunday and The New York Times).

Illustrating the food column in this month’s easyJet Traveller is brilliant Finnish artist Janne Iivonen:

Janne has also worked for The Guardian, The Times, Bloomberg Businessweek, The New York Times and Heineken.

Also in the mix, illustrating easyJet Traveller‘s business interview, is this portrait, below, by Nick Reddyhoff, executed in a style perfectly suited to its e-commerce pioneering subject.

(Posted by AndrewH)

Illustrator of the month

The Feb issue of Excelente, cover above, contains a particularly gorgeous set of illustrations. The story is about a unique supper club called Dining Impossible, in which members lay down a fee of around 2,000 euros to partake in an orgy of three grand feasts eaten over three days, prepared by some of the world’s top chefs. It’s a fascinating piece but shooting the story wasn’t an option as the next event doesn’t take place for some time and cameras probably wouldn’t be welcome anyway. So art director Antonio Galvez commissioned illustrator Marina Gonzalez Eme to supply the visuals. I think the results are beautiful and perfectly capture the sybaritic (over)indulgence of the whole thing.

And how they appear in the magazine.

(Posted by AndrewH)

The really big Big Apple

I was waiting to receive a finished piece of work from illustrator Ross Murray last week, and he was unusually slow (for him) in coming back. I now see why. He’s been tied up on a magnificent panoramic NYC mural for the forthcoming issue of Thomas Cook Travel.

The brief, according to editor Mike MacEacheran, was to create the ultimate greatest hits of New York for the first-time visitor. “We asked him to take a cinematic, musical, artistic journey through the Five Boroughs, ticking off as many pop culture icons as possible. Hence the illo takes the reader from Lower Manhattan into Brooklyn and then back into Midtown, before heading up into Harlem and the Bronx. So geographically it all makes perfect sense. We gave him a list of around 60 things we wanted included but he came back with about 100.”

It’s an epic piece of work befitting an epic city. Hats off to art director Dan di Paolo, too.

And here’s the complete illustration (click to enlarge). (Posted by AndrewH)

Never can say goodbye

Ex-Ink art director/group art director Julia Murray may have swapped London for a return to her family home (and 800-head of cattle) back in New Zealand but she hasn’t completely severed ties with Ink. She supplied some beautiful illustration work for the new issue of Germanwings, to accompany a feature on the best of European zoos. (Posted by AndrewH)

Rough

Finished art

Final spread

In praise of the big green C

Lovely dps in the forthcoming May issue of bThere, the magazine Ink publishes on behalf of Brussels Airline. It maps out all the places and institutions that feature in the following three pages of copy laying out Copenhagen’s enviable credentials to be the Green Capital of Europe 2014. This city seems to bring out the best in illustrators: see also here.

The bThere illustration was done by Cork-based The Project Twins, whose excellent selfies are below, and commissioned by art director Marten Sealby.

And a Happy Easter to all. (Posted by AndrewH)

Thomas Cookin’

The latest issue of Thomas Cook Travel has just gone to print and it has some excellent content, secured, I should point out, at great cost to sanity. Art director Dan di Paolo spent most of March becoming ever more manic as swathes of red tape confounded proposed scenario after scenario for photo shoots in Los Angeles, while being rendered ever more dumbfounded by the sheer financial rapaciousness of the city. How hard can it be to get Harry Potter (well, a lookalike) posing in a Hooters bar? The results, though, justify the pain.

Also great fun, the animal-print shirt spread with non-standard models:

I omitted to highlight it at the time, but the last issue of Thomas Cook Travel also had some very noteworthy stories. Editor Mike MacEacheran pulled off a triple whammy in securing phone interviews with not only Brandon Flowers of The Killers, but also Neyla Pekarek of The Lumineers and Albert Hammond Jr of The Strokes. Beat that NME. The very fine illustrations were by San Francisco-based Caitlin Kuhwald, who has done work for Rolling Stone, Penguin Books, GQ, Mother Jones and heaps more.

And there was another tongue-in-cheek product shoot, in which regular Ink photographer Tim E White persuaded a bunch of Turkish fishermen to model inappropriate eyewear.

Travelling with Thomas Cook has never seemed so cool. (Posted by AndrewH)

Cool covers

I really like the cover of the current Let’s Go with Ryanair. It was done by illustrator Tim McDonagh to accompany a story on the explosion of New York businesses setting up sister venues in London. He also provided art for the story’s opening dps.

Even better though is the cover for the next issue, a brilliant retro-illo by Bath-based Robert G Fresson that fronts a story promoting the fact that Ryanair flies to no less than four destination airports on Sicily.

Both covers were commissioned by Ryanair art director and squash-king Jamie Trendall. (Posted by AndrewH)

Norwegian noted

The excellent It’s Nice That design website has a post up about the illustrations David Sparshott produced for N by Norwegian magazine to accompany a story on the return to service of a luxurious private train that once belonged to Yugoslavia’s Marshall Tito. Conceived by art director Rickard Westin and editor Toby Skinner, the commission involved illustrating over the top of photographs of the train interiors. (Posted by AndrewH)

Rockets among the reindeer

n by Norwegian is the magazine that takes you where other inflights don’t. This month, it’s Kiruna in northern Sweden. This is the city in the province of Lapland that is being relocated to a new site two miles east to avoid being destabilised by local mining operations. It’s also home to Spaceport Sweden, which aims to become Europe’s foremost gateway to space. The limited air traffic in Lapland, combined with the sparse population, makes it an ideal launchpad, apparently.

In advance of the first passenger-carrying space flights, the centre is concentrating on building up a space tourism industry in town that offers a range of experiences to please everyone from Star Trek enthusiasts to amateur astronomers to thrill seekers (the Sapceport offers the opportunity to experience weightlessness). Anyway, you can read all about in the November issue of n by Norwegian, which will be available onine from the first of that month. The fantastic illustrations are Thomas Danthony. (Posted by AndrewH)

You wait all year for one pink cover…

More dalliance with the shocking end of the colour palette courtesy of this month’s Let’s Go with Ryanair. The art director is Jamie Trendall, the artist the amazing Stephan Walter; more of his work below. (Posted by AndrewH)