Wednesday, March 21, 2012

The Priceless Pearl and more



Shortly before Ayyam-i-Há, I was given the opportunity and honor to adapt Rúhhíyih Rabbani's cover for her book, The Priceless Pearl, as an exclusive eBook cover for Bahá'í eBook Publications. It was an interesting and fun challenge, as I needed to maintain all of the major elements from the original design, while trying to adapt it to the theme and design aesthetic I've brought to my other covers.


The book was released as a beautifully-formatted and illustrated eBook during Ayyam-i-Há, and I recommend you check out the free download at Bahá'í eBook Publications's website! I won't be releasing this particular cover at full resolution on my personal website, as I made it as an exclusive for this release, but you can get a closer look when you download the book.


A few other updates: I will be posting an updated version of my dark blue Bahá'í Prayers cover, so that the central star design will show up more clearly on your reader screens. I'm also working on an under-the-hood restructuring of my website, that will also include some expanded content, so keep an eye out for that in the near future. In the meantime, Happy Naw-Rúz!

P.S. For those of you wondering, the full-resolution eBook covers are fully Retina-display-ready for the new iPad! They're technically even higher-resolution than the Retina Display, so they look gorgeous (as does everything on that screen). Enjoy!

Sunday, March 04, 2012

Ralph McQuarrie

From the Art of Ralph McQuarrie website:

It is with the deepest sadness that we announce the passing of Ralph McQuarrie.

People say you should never meet your heroes. Ralph was the exception to that rule. We were all fans of his amazing art long before we were blessed with his friendship. But once you got to know Ralph it was impossible not to become a fan of Ralph the man.

Ralph was a very special person for many more reasons than his undeniable brilliance with a brush. He was an especially kind, sensitive, deep, modest, funny and fascinating gentleman. And as fine a role model as any one could have wished for.

His influence on design will be felt forever. There's no doubt in our hearts that centuries from now amazing spaceships will soar, future cities will rise and someone, somewhere will say...

"that looks like something Ralph McQuarrie painted."