Hasta La Ideas

Illustrator Elliott Quince has designed plasticine pyramids, hieroglyphs and Red Sea creatures for the cover of easyJet’s in-flight magazine, Traveller.

The illustration promotes an article about diving and yoga holidays in Egypt and depicts ancient monuments and traditional hieroglyphs such as the Eye of Horus, a symbol of good health, and Ankh, which symbolises life (top left).

Quince worked on the cover for around four days and began by sketching his design in pencil and adding a bevel in Photoshop. He then created a model twice the size of the magazine, which allowed him to easily manipulate the plasticine figures.

As he told easyJet in an article on the making of the cover, it was a straightforward process – aside from a slight setback when he realised his cat had snuck into his studio overnight. “I spent the morning scraping off furry footprints,” he says.

Quince – who was previously an art director at 300million – began experimenting with plasticine after buying some for his daughter and in 2011, released Plasticine Tatooine – a book featuring plasticine illustrations of Star Wars characters. “It’s equally frustrating and therapeutic – you have to take your time with it but it’s worth it in the end,” he says.