The Goodman’s in-house design team prepared a comprehensive inspiration deck for me, since they already had a pretty solid vision for the illustration style and elements to include. It was important for the image to convey that Book Up! is performed outdoors in the parks, to include some element of circus performance such as juggling or acrobatics, and to include a variety of symbols and objects from the book genres mentioned in the script.
With all that in mind, I sketched out a design for the image and prepared a rough sample poster (at left and below). For flexibility, I proposed designing two versions of the image: one split by clouds for vertical formats and instances where show copy would be present, and one cloudless version for horizontal and small-scale formats. The Goodman team loved it, and my work continued.
Above: the final illustration and title treatment. With every project, I try to consider many potential applications and give clients as much flexibility as possible, so for this image nearly all the elements—genre symbols, doodles, people, trees, etc—are separate and movable. The Goodman team can freely resize and reconfigure these elements as needed for a wide variety of print and digital marketing materials.
Above: the final image in a vertical poster format, with show copy and promotional information.