Explorers of Tomorrow

Student Work

Time: December 2009
Scope: Visual System
Role: Designer

Explorers of Tomorrow was the first book I designed in art school. The project was to pick a subject, research its developments for the next 10 years, and create a book to chart the advancements. Growing up, I remember buying an old book about the future of automobiles from a school library sale. I was fascinated by images of nuclear powered engines and flying cars. It was like a window to a parallel universe. I wanted to recreate that feeling of awe I had, so I chose to design a children's book about space exploration 10 years in the future, but from the viewpoint of someone 50 years in the past.

In 1969 we had just sent man to walk on the moon. I thought it would be interesting to see how that generation might view space travel and how it would compare to the actual advances made since then. It also allowed me to use the amazing illustrations of Syd Mead, who was a big inspiration for this project.