HOW WE WORK: A CASE STUDY
By Yvonne Gilbert & Danny Nanos
It is very unusual for a graphic designer and illustrator to work so closely together on a single project. Usually the designer will instruct the illustrator which areas to illustrate according to his own design and in what style. Working in the same studio allowed graphic designer Danny Nanos and illustrator Yvonne Gilbert to work in a more creative, even experimental, manner.
This version has an abbreviated text written by Nicky Raven and had some important alterations to the original to consider—notably that Dracula had bone-white hair and purple eyes. After some experimentation, Yvonne and Danny made their first important decision—this description would inform the overall colour of the book choosing white as the main theme with subtle violet overtones rather than the traditional red, black or purple. This immediately lightened the overall mood lending a fresher, more contemporary feel and Yvonne decided to play up on this by introducing a drawing style that played to a younger audience.
The next step was to nail the appearance of Dracula—was he old, young, handsome, creepy? Both Danny and Yvonne agreed that Dracula was a charismatic, possibly attractive figure with an air of the romantic about him—romantic in the proper, gothic sense.
Having made the decision to use the freer drawing style Danny and Yvonne then slipped into a method of working backward and forward between the two as one proposed a scene and the other added or subtracted till each spread worked in a wholly symbiotic relationship. Yvonne would ‘see’ an image and make a sketch from which Danny would create a more dynamic spread asking for other sketches which would be added in front or behind, sometimes ghosted, then Yvonne would adjust the final drawings to follow the new direction. The type would be arranged to flow around the drawings or vice-versa, sometimes the type would be broken purely to add drama to the spread, for instance gaps making lightning strikes during a storm.
Of course, there are many other considerations to take into account during the designing of a book, the idea being to stimulate and engage the reader not to insult or offend. In this case, the publisher wanted to avoid any mention of religion for example which lead to changes in the spreads as they evolved.
The age group of the readers was also a consideration so some of the more ‘scarier’ images were also adjusted. It was quite hard to skirt around many of the subjects as the story abounds with coffins, corpses, blood and crucifixes.
Once these matters were dealt with to the approval of the publisher the spreads quickly flowed together adding and adjusting until the relationship between text and illustration reached the desired level of fluidity.
The final challenge was the cover. In keeping with the tonality of the illustrations and the air contained in the spreads Danny and Yvonne designed a range of alternative covers that matched the interior pages. As most editions of Dracula are coloured red and black, and wanting this new version to stand out amongst them, mainly white or purple covers were proposed. Other Templar books editions including their ‘Ology’ series were hardbacks with ‘jewelled’ cases so Danny’s proposals were along the same lines. An interior cover was agreed upon which was to be embossed with 4 purple ‘jewels’ on the front. However, cost restrictions meant that the embossing and ‘jewels’ were consequently dropped.
Finally, the slipcover need to be agreed with Templar and sadly, due to the intervention of the booksellers, an executive decision was made that the cover HAD to be red and black. This was very disappointing but it goes with the job so a new cover solution was proposed featuring a portrait of Dracula worked up from the original sketches and a dull red, as close to blood as it could get.
Dracula by Nicky Raven
Templar Publishing UK, 2010; ISBN: 978-1840115710