Pushkin Vertigo asked me to illustrate the cover for a collection Edgar Allan Poe’s detective mysteries. Set in Paris during the mid-nineteenth century, the brilliant Chevalier Auguste Dupin investigates grisly and confounding mysteries with his trusty companion.

The three short stories are widely acknowledged to be the first detective novels ever written and influenced Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes series. 

The brief stipulated the the book ought to look a little festive or 'gifty'. It's no secret that I adore the decorative arts but prefer it when there is a significance to the flourishes and patterns used in the artwork, so I set about hunting for my own visual clues to use in the design. 

For the border surrounding the cover I drew little macabre icons such as skulls, headstones and blood drops that reflect the morbid subject matter in the stories. These were woven into a lacework pattern that also references a central theme in the second story.

On reading the books I was surprised at the prominence of the meerschaum pipe, which I included, now more synonymous with the famous Baker Street detective. 

One of my favourite parts is the Parisian skyline at the top hinting at architecture from the period including a little Notre-Dame cathedral which suffered the horrific fire while I was designing the cover.