Artist Research - 2

Ronald William 'Josh' Kirby

Book Cover Design

The final major project is focused on the concept and design of book covers and our end goal is to create one of our own.

While investigating and researching book covers and their layout design, I began to look at fantasy style novel covers as a main source of inspiration. One such sequence of books included Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, whose covers were illustrated by British artist Josh Kirby.

Ronald William Kirby acquired the nickname 'Josh' at his time at the Liverpool City School of Art and since then was rarely referred to by his real name. He is known for the illustration and painting of over 400 pieces of work, many of which served as film posters, magazine and book covers, amongst other things. His work for the covers of the Discworld series is widely known, though he has produced work for other famous projects, such as Monty Python's The Life of Brian and Star Wars Episode VI. He often spent time producing work for his Voyage of The Ayeguy portfolio, when he was not doing work for others.

A piece of work Kirby created for the cover of Terry Pratchett's 'Small Gods' book from the Discworld series

Kirby's paintings and illustrations are often very detailed and his work on Discworld book covers include several figures on large, intricate backdrops. His style of illustration makes the artwork look busy and alive with motion, like the characters are in the midst of action. The colours used are vibrant, especially on his book cover works.

Work from Kirby's own 'Voyage of The Ayeguy' portfolio

I felt that his work was chosen for book covers because of it's eye-catching colours and detail. This was a very traditional way of producing artwork for book covers, compared to the more recently large market for digitally processed and enhanced imagery that we have today. At the time of some of the earliest published Discworld books (1983 - onwards), technology was not as advanced as it is at present, so digital enhancement was not possible.

Studying Kirby's work has helped me to understand what is needed to create interesting book covers, without digital help.