The Struggle For Peace In The Middle East was awarded the Best Designed Educational Primary/Secondary Book at the 2016 Australian Book Design Awards. I collaborated with Olga Lavecchia on the cover design and illustration, and art directed/project managed the complete set of 16 Nelson Modern History series titles.
The brief:
A unified series design of 16 Modern History titles for Australian Senior School Students.
The catch:
Budget constraints meant historical cover shots were out of the picture.
The design pitch:
Studying history is all about discovery, analysis and investigation. Why not riff off the budget constraints to inform a better learning experience?
An iconic cover illustration was crafted to allude to a key moment in time.
A clean line drawing style unifies the myriad of series topics.
A gatefold unlocks the meaning of the cover image with a variety of supporting historical source material for readers to analyse (photograph, blurb, historical profiles, illustrated timeline, quote).
Teachers were encouraged to utilise the gatefold as a learning tool on the first day of class to offer an engaging, hands-on introduction to the subject.
The complete set of 16 titles. A clean illustrative look offers a memorable point of difference from a competitor market saturated with photographic montages.