Museography Cover

Cover illustration I did for the Kalamazoo Valley Museum, a local children's museum. The cover is advertising a new exhibit of Japanese culture for kids, which was co-created with help and pieces from the Hayao Miyazaki Museum. (Which means there's going to be a life size Cat Bus there. Really!)

They wanted me to show a lot of Japanese cultural references, but I couldn't use licensed characters, so I had to emulate them instead. I researched and found all kinds of cool mythological Japanese characters and animals, like the kitsune and the tanuki, and of course, cool robots! I also threw in a koi, an octopus and a cute frog for good luck.
I had to leave room up top and on the sides for the masthead and other type to b added by the layout designer.
I'm pretty happy with the end results, and now there's 20,000 copies of this cover floating around the SW Michigan area. If you're local, the exhibit starts May 5, and will be cool for kids and the young at heart!