Every graphic designer or design agency accumulates, at some point in their career, cabinets full, or rather, drives full of projects that were going really well until they weren’t. Projects get cancelled, goals shift, and work that seemed good at the time gets set aside or buried. But everything gets a second life, however small, on the internet. Here are some of our favorite no-gos. Like beautiful zombies rising from slumber.
General disclaimer: Our intention in posting these no-go pieces is never to embarrass or compromise our clients. It’s strictly to give a tiny place for ideas we were proud of that didn’t quite make it to prime time. So if anyone involved in the projects on this page has an issue with our listing them, please contact me and I’ll remove it quickly. —Bill
HEY, an old iPhone app! This is the steampunk-y interface I designed for the first iteration of Broadcastr, an app that geotagged audio files and allowed you to experience stories based on your physical location. This one was rejected and two more tries later, we had a winner. But this was my favorite, even though this style of interface was already falling out of favor then. I love skeuomorphism, current interface design is great, but sometimes a bit cold.
IT’S always a shame when a book doesn’t make it to print. For us that’s only happened three or four times in the last 20 years, which is a decent ratio I think.
Here’s one that the world may yet see, but for now I believe the book is on hold. This was a collection of essays that first appeared in Artillery Magazine, written by Kurt Thomas. I’ll let you imagine what the topics were.
THIS is a book that did see life but as is sometimes — okay, quite often — the case, the client did not pick the best cover. It’s not their fault, it’s just the nature of the work. But in this small space the comps of covers that might’ve been can find some rest.
HERE is one of the few books we put a lot of time into but never got to see the final result. It’s a shame because the artwork was really fantastic. I knew almost nothing about the Transformers universe before doing this book, but the thought and time that the director and artists, and author, Simon Furman, put into the content was clearly evident.
We were about ninety percent done with the layouts when the plug was pulled. I don’t know specifically why, but I gather it was a disagreement between Michael Bay and Titan Books, the publisher. Also heavily involved was Paramount Pictures, who seemed, like us, kind of caught in the middle. It was still a positive experience in all, and I believe that years later Bay did publish a book very similar in content to this one, so the fans got to see the cool art eventually. And I know this art has mostly seen the light of day now, but if anyone from Michael Bay’s office or Paramount has issues with me showing these small images, please let me know. —Bill
