DESIGNING THE DEMI-MONDE

If you're reading this blog you've probably come to it through the Demi-Monde web-site (if not try http://www.thedemi-monde.com/) and some of you might be wondering who did the wonderful design work on display there.

The answer is my very good friend and fellow lunatic Nigel Robinson (and I tell you to get into the Demi-Monde mind-set you've got to have a screw loose). Nigel is a web-site designer and graphic artist who lives in deepest, darkest Yorkshire (poor sod). We were introduced a few years ago when I needed some work doing on Nelli's web-site (she's a fine jazz singer amongst many, many talents) and we've been working together off and on ever since.

The great thing about Nigel is that we're on the same wave-length...he's always willing to push me a little further in my imaginings. Take the maps of the Demi-Monde for instance. I provided him with a copy of my crudely drawn map that I'd been using as reference during the writing of the book and...eureka, he comes up with something exactly right (or even write).

Over the next few months you'll be seeing more of Nigel's work being posted on the Demi-Monde site. I want to get up the Wiki-esque descriptions of the religions and philosophies of the Demi-Monde (UnFunDaMentalism, ImPuritanism, Auralism et al) and Nigel's currently working on this. Also as the Real-World features more heavily in Book 2 (which I'm currently writing) I want to post some of the background sheets I've written to this out-of-kilter reality (moteBots, ABBA, Bennies etc. etc.) and these will be displayed as the faux-GCSE Revision Guides which Nigel designed.

Just to give you a little further taste of Nigel's work, pre-Quercus when I was thinking of promoting The Demi-Monde by myself I asked Nigel to come up with a couple of covers. Now covers are a Publisher's prerogative - they know much better than me who the book's target audience is and what works and doesn't work in a book store - but just for the record here's one of Nigel's takes.

So take a bow Nigel Robinson. You can contact him on http://www.everythingbuttheproduct.com/.