For the 2022 release of Goldie: A Magic City Wonders Novel, the first installment in a new series, I wanted to craft an immersive experience. Readers who preordered the book were sent a package containing stickers and other ephemera inspired by the story world. As the story is set in 1980, all elements used era-specific reference as a starting point, filtered through an updated, more colorful stylization.
I used real archival texture imagery to digitally re-create an authentic Xerox copy look for some of the pieces, and even physically distressed, crumpled, or folded certain pieces to give them a more authentic in-world feel.
This faux Xerox copy of a newspaper clipping told a story that expands the in-universe mythology (complete with Easter eggs to projects that haven't even been announced). Each copy also had cryptic handwritten lettering on the back that, when folded properly, revealed a secret message about the release of the next installment in the series.
I created a set of vintage-style trading cards based on the three main characters from the story. I created custom illustrations of each character and borrowed typographic stylings from reference imagery, noting that old-fashioned trading cards often had distinct styles even between cards in a single collection.
I also included a sticker sheet, which featured logos for various fake businesses or establishments that are mentioned in the series. This was a super fun part for me, and also involved research to find the right look for fonts and graphic styles. For the stickers, I chose to use a limited color palette for greater aesthetic cohesion. A few of the logos didn't make it to the sheet due to space.
