Cover To Cover

On Wednesday evening I sat down over some marinaded chicken livers with Adam Gardner, my friend and go to designer, to talk about the ideas he said he had sketched for the cover of my new book The Stamp Collective. 

As I sipped at my bottomless Coke Zero he took a bound notebook from his satchel and presented me with what he referred to as “the rough idea”. He turned one page towards me and what I saw was an image that has raced across my mind since before I sat down in August 2013 to start writing the novel. His vision and line-work were as though he had traced it from a projection shot out of my brain. 
Quite simply, it is sublime. 

The additional notes he gave me on the overall look and feel only backed up my decision in offering him the role of designing what will be my first independently published novel. He designed the cover for my book of short stories Where Did All The Money Go? as well as the artwork for the Stalin musical I co-wrote and put on as a two man show in November last year. 
This design is something else.

As such, I have decided to keep it under wraps which in itself is an in-joke considering the concept art which will be lost on you until you read the book. This goes against everything I usually do. I’m one to take the first chance to blast an image or an idea everywhere as soon as the opportunity is afforded to me. I want to take a slower path and build towards this as an event. 
The Stamp Collective is coming.
Get it down yer lad.