Youtuber Ian McCollum is known for his series Forgotten Weapons where he discusses the history of firearms. He announced a contest for designers to create the cover artwork for a book he was writing, and I jumped at the opportunity.

The book is about the history of French firearms dating from 1866 to 2016. Going along with this, Ian described he was looking for an “antique” or “oldworld” style. This would be a big undertaking since the final project would be a style that I had never made before.

Rather than jumping straight to the computer, I drew out layouts by hand. This way I could get an immediate feel for hierarchy and scale.

After sketching layouts repeatedly and experimenting with different “Old-world” flare, I was able to get a good idea of what the final product would look like. From that point, I started playing with different styles and finding a good balance between complex and simple. Something with a lot of flare but doesn’t detract from the main information.

Another big decision was the “center piece” of the design. Initially I went for a literal showing of the weapons featured in the book. But I decided that might not be appropriate so I instead went for a portrait of an old French soldier. I decided this would be more appropriate considering the “antique” style.

In the end, my submission did not win. However it was used along with other submissions as examples of what the final winner would look like. It wasn’t much, but it was a nice little bit of recognition from the host of the contest.