Covers

We have done various assignments for Australian Design Group. The most interesting are the covers for the games.

A "quicky" rough pencil over photocopies, rushed into production.

"What we need is something identifiable as a Wif product, similar colours letter style and so on .…but the illustration can be a more modern style". I was certain I could improve on the World in Flames (WiF) cover and was gratified that Harry was entrusting his next game in some part to my skills. WiF is the best selling strategic board game in the world after all.

We started on the Chardonnay and Harry pointed out that of course the box illustration would need to be complete before or at least when the rest of the components where printed. The expression "drop dead deadline" flashed through my mind, oh well it was a dream job in all other aspects.

Rob "Ok so what's the concept?"

Harry "Well the game is based on the premise that the combined German / Japanese forces win WWII and go on to attack America, .. hence "America in Flames", we would like a shot of New York skyline with the statue of liberty in the foreground with a Messersmitt 262 flying past"

Rob "Smoke and flames in the city?"

Harry "Yes and a blood red sun like the Japanese flag in the background.. the plane symbolises the Germans and the sun the Japanese"

Rob "You HAVE put some thought into this"

Harry "Of course, the box cover is the most important part for shop and convention sales"

We turned our attention to the food and I canned my "A strong concept makes for a good illustration" sermon.

Harry "We need to have a swastika somewhere in the picture too"

I almost said 'it's getting a little crowded' but wisely held my tongue

Back in the studio feeling full and a little tipsy (it was very good Chardonnay) I wrote a picture reference list
1. New York skyline
2. Statue of liberty
3. ME 262
4. WiF letter style and corporate colours

I did a couple of rough sketches, then went back to the exciting debt collection merry go round that I had started that morning.

The ME 262 research
Step one jump on the net, lot of sites and some really interesting stuff. But no pics of a ME 262 in the air from another plane. Visit to the local war memorial.. nothing staff .. directed to the restoration people, .. 1 rusty fuselage later.
Library some good pics and information. The shot, set up a very old scale model and did a series of video grabs.

Yes

Printed the shot A3 size, trace shape, transfer to final, a day or so with the Yokens (felt tip pens) and pencils, the rivets took forever.

Statue of liberty research
This time the net was the only way to go, but once again the right pose was difficult to find. Printed up the shots stuck them on the studio wall, brewed some coffee and worked it through. The face was really tricky ended up taking a grab into Photoshop and touching up the sketch on the Waycom tablet real close up. The stains and pollution are just pencil.
As with the plane this sketch was over twice the size it need to be.

New York skyline
A 1945 picture of New York skyline behind the statue?
The thing about research is knowing when to stop cutting into the allotted "creative" time.
I made up a port and jetties with a one point perspective. I originally had an idea involving lots of reflections in the water etc but the point of view and the layout of the cover didn't really support this, besides a lot of printed information about the game was destined for this area.

WiF lettering
The original lettering is all made up ie there isn't a font. As Harry pointed out I only had to make a couple of letters. I did this and then re-made the others. Lessons learnt
1. Fonts are really hard to make
2. Unique artwork like the original lettering can cause real long term problems

3. I resolved to use a "real" font on any other assignments for ADG (or any other clients) see Cruisers and Convoys in Flames

Each scan was 30 - 40 meg, so I built a low res version for layout purposes in Illustrator, made up the final Illustrator file then went back to Photoshop to massage the final image file.

The background is a grade from red to black with "render clouds" applied. Liberty is slightly soft focussed, the city is more blurred to enhance the perspective.

The fires are Eye Candy "flame" and the flames where selected and "smoke" applied. A whole bunch of tests were done to find the best effect. The smoke layer had "warp" applied to it to simulate wind.

Flame test

The plexiglass cockpit cover was airbushed in Photoshop. All edges were de fringed and in some cases blurred.

I resisted the urge to have the guns firing and move lines coming from the wings.

Swastika

It occurred to Harry that to have a swastika flag draped from the statue would add drama.

The problem was that German customs would not allow the game into the country with it on the cover. We compromised with the flag curling to partially cover it.

It was diplomatically pointed out that I got the original swastika the wrong way around.

The Japanese battle flag.

I built the shape in Illustrator and transferred it to Photoshop and used it as a mask.

By this stage the final file was 230 megs so airbrushing the effect in was tedious.

One option was to leave the area around the "rays" in the sky colour. It was decided that this was too subtle.