Spine Series
Author: H.G. Wells
Designer: Tim Phelan
Publisher: Spine Publishing - a new publishing house that has a unique interest in reviving classical literature to engage a modern audience. H.G Wells is to be their first series. (fictional "not real" publishing house)
Typefaces: As there were 4 books in the series I needed to keep some elements of the design consistent. I adopted the Franklin Gothic family for its neutrality and mainly focused on its condensed typefaces which can be seen along each spine and on some of the covers.

Great work Tim. Love the interest and practicality of these! —Jason Gabbert

Were there any unique challenges to this project?
A series is always a challenge. One of the obvious challenges was to define a unique concept for each book while creating certain consistencies in the series. I always love the challenge of condensing complex information into designs that communicate underlying themes of the story. Having not read some of these books I had to do a lot of reading to come up with an intelligent concept for each book.


The Invisible Man
The Invisible Man established the construction for each concept, which would revolve around the use of paper and collage.
       Using torn paper to mimic bandages, it struck me that I could further use this device to emphasise Griffins underlying insanity. The finished design ended up as a pastiche on the typical Invisible Man cliché which usually depicts a suit, top hat and no face.
       There was a painful amount of scanning trial and error needed to get the perfect depth and shading on the overlapping paper. The typography was rendered through printed black paper by scratching with a scalpel over a light-box.


The War of the Worlds
I drew inspiration from the Orson Welles' radio adaption that panicked America in 1938. As extracts of the novel are written in a formal journalistic style, my starting point referenced torn newspapers and half-tone patterns. The looming radio mast on the front cover is also a slight homage to the tripods, indicating the controversy and terror created by the broadcast was purely concocted by man and not martian.


The Time Machine
To manufacture a time machine would require blueprints, diagrams, scribbled thoughts and lots of maths! These were the foundation for this design.
       It was quite a task to get the typography right, all of which had to be traced in a crude but accurate sort of way and then scanned in. In order to get the right effect, I realised I had to trace the type at a very small point size and then blow it up.


The Island of Dr Moreau
Although this novel contains a lot of social allegories, it's essentially the tale of a mad scientist who dissects and turns people into animals. This was the hardest concept to define. I was playing around with dirt and muddy fingerprints for a while. Eventually I whittled it down to simpler metaphor; a doctor's stethoscope/dog lead. The sliced and revealed type also mimics the dissection and mutilation that Dr Moreau inflicts upon his patients.


The rest of the jacket design
The back of each jacket contains a specific quote from every novel that should engage a potential reader. As these novels are such classics I felt it was redundant to have the synopsis on the back. Instead, a 'did you know' fact can be found on each book that gives the reader a unique fact about how book has influenced something or someone.

For example:
'At the age of 16, Robert Goddard was so inspired by The War of The Worlds that he spent much of this time inventing rockets. The research begun by Goddard eventually culminated in the Apollo program's landing on the moon.'

Furthermore, as an added bonus for the reader I wanted the back flap to have a tear-away bookmark that could also advertise/promote Spine publishing house.

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