I did a bunch of big projects for SoulMuppet in 2023-2024, but none were as personal to the creator as INEVITABLE. Zach Cox’s love letter to Westerns and Arthuriana went through a lot of revisions before we settled on the final design, and even after that there was a tremendous amount of back-and-forth as we debated over where to place each of the over 100 pieces of full-page art. The only stipulations I imposed on myself were these: no fake paper textures, and no blackletter. I wanted to earn my paycheck.

The first thing we agreed on was the choice of typefaces, all from British type foundry Beasts of England (the name alone was a non-insignificant factor in their choosing). The book uses Sandleford for body text, Rough Cut for tables and sidebars, and Jack’s Maggot for some headers. The main chapter headers are done in a lovely display type called Lotape, which was used for its attractive blend of calligraphic and arabesque details. These were set alongside geometric patterns and hand-drawn fourishes, the melding of Southwestern patterns and manuscript illuminations. 

The page borders were designed by KlurArts to my specifications, as I felt that no book taking inspiration from medieval text can really go without having an overly-ornate frame. To keep it from overpowering the text, I asked to keep color to a minimum except in the corners, where the orange and green evoke the twin moons of the setting, from which all magic flows. Two versions of the borders were produced: one for individual pages and one for spreads. An alternate for each was made to be overlaid over images, providing a ghostly watermark that preserved the theme without covering up any of the good bits.  Art’s expensive.

For a book of this size, the full-spread images had to be adjusted so as not to fall into the gutter. The exception of this is the map, which was placed in the dead center of the book so as to lay completely flat when it was opened. Unlike the previous two SoulMuppet books I worked on, this didn’t get a silver foil cover — instead, two alternate covers were illustrated and customers had their choice of them at checkout.