Path of the Panther
This was an interesting project for how it started. Carlton brought me in before he had a publisher. When that is the case, my strong recommendation is to only concentrate on the cover (since that’s what publishers and marketers—are they any different?—always focus on first). And then pair it with a selection of images. In this case, I agreed to do a kind of “proof of concept” layout so that it had a little more structure. Carlton is quite passionate, but the topic is fairly narrow in scope so we stretched it out by adding numerous sidebars and outtakes from the many camera traps employed in the coverage. As for a publisher, he did eventually convince NG to take it on since he had a companion documentary film being picked up by Disney. Synergy, oh yeah.
Client: National Geographic Partners (Disney)
Role: Art direction and design