So, the end of the decade is upon us - the Noughties are over! With this in mind, the latest issue of LeftLion magazine takes a long hard look at the first ten years of the 21st century and the cultural nuggets it has spewed forth. After handing over cover duties on the previous issue to Rob White, this time it was back to me to produce the artwork for our first cover since winning the Nottingham Creative Business Writing & Publishing award in October.
We decided that a great way to represent the multitude of people, events and cultural milestones the decade will be remembered for was to nick someone else’s idea parody the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper cover, which did the same thing for the sixties. Hey, if it’s good enough for Peter Blake and the biggest band of all time, then it’s probably good enough for us too, right?
As well as cutting out all the ‘celebs’ who grace the cover (ranging from global leaders to local icons and interviewees), I will admit to cutting corners with the bottom of the image; I had originally intended to buy some flowers arrange and photograph to make up the letters for ‘Noughty Notts’ on the grass, as per the original album artwork. This idea was soon modified to the more realistic solution of drawing the floral lettering; however, a broken scanner and looming deadline meant the idea got watered down to using a font made from a flowery pattern.
To be honest, keeping it simple possibly works in the cover’s favour, keeping the clutter and fuss down, but I am a sucker for such extra little details. One thing I will definitely not be missing, though, is Photoshop’s pen tool, which I will now be doing my best to avoid for the next few weeks after becoming painfully familiar with it over the course of producing this cover.
A bigger version of the artwork can be seen here.
A digital PDF of the entire issue can be downloaded here.
