How illustrators drew the undrawable for The Folio Society

It's a daunting task, creating imagery for the work of legendary science fiction author Philip K Dick, particularly when presenting some 118 short stories of extraordinary breadth and variation. It’s a formidable challenge for any publisher, not least one with a decades-long reputation for quality. And yet, The Folio Society – who for 75 years has set the standard for elegant book design – have broken with traditional approaches to produce a story collection that’s every bit as daring and intricate as the mind of its author.

The publisher’s two art directors, Sheri Gee and Raquel Leis Allion, opted to collaborate on the artwork for all four volumes of Philip K. Dick’s The Complete Short Stories, published on a limited run of 750 copies in 2021. After selecting 24 stories for illustration, they found that – unlike a typical Folio project – it would be unworkable to entrust one illustrator with such a vast body of work. Instead, they brought on 24 different illustrators, of all fields and styles, equally divided between both art directors across the volumes.

The end result is an otherworldly depiction of the author’s imagination, with illustrations by celebrated artists including Dave McKean and Georgia Hill. It’s intensely original and continually surprising, fully deserving of its Wood Pencil for imaginative and innovative book design. For this year’s Annual, D&AD sat down with Gee and Leis Allion to talk about the joys of collaboration, rising to a challenge, and how to keep an eye out for where the next great illustrator may be hiding.

Keeping a black book of talent comes in handy for complex projects

Typically, both art directors work fairly autonomously, observing each other’s processes without ever co-managing a project. However the scale of the task presented them with a convenient opportunity to try something a little different. “We split the task down the middle, but couldn’t decide which stories we wanted to take ownership of, so we did a lucky dip,” explains Leis Allion. “We wrote down all 24 stories on strips of paper, folded them, put them in a box, and pulled them out one by one.”

Once they had their stories allocated, both Gee and Leis Allion had to match them with their respective pools of illustrators – including many who’d never had a chance to work with Folio before. Philip K. Dick’s stories vary wildly in their topics and themes, from science and technology to dystopian worlds and the human condition. Where that diversity of focus may have impeded one sole illustrator, the truncated format of the short stories allowed for multiple illustrators to step in and interpret each text in their own way. “I always have a file of illustrators that I admire but have had to keep to one side until the right project comes up,” says Leis Allion. “This was a great opportunity to use those illustrators.”

Look beyond book illustrators

Both art directors felt as if they were asking illustrators to draw the undrawable. “When we were reading the texts,” Gee tells us, “we found that a lot of the stories were psychological, so the illustrators were having to be clever with how they envisaged the scenes – they wouldn’t be as obvious as a spaceship coming to earth.” Alongside this, a not-insubstantial amount of the short stories have already been made into movies and TV shows, too – everything from Total Recall to Minority Report – and so care needed to be taken to ensure illustrations drew from the original text rather than their on-screen adaptations.

With that in mind, Gee and Leis Allion drew together a host of different artists, “a great balance of people from all around the world,” in Gee’s words, “recent graduates to well-awarded illustrators.” And Leis Allion believes they wouldn’t be able to find those ideal illustrators if it wasn’t for a life of constantly looking out for them. “You have an image of what you want in your head and you’ve got to go down so many rabbit holes to find the right ones – going to student shows, doing a lot of scrolling on social media, gathering artists constantly until names jump out at you when the time is right.” 

Gee highlighted Yehrin Tong, who stood out for her bold pinball skull illustration for The Return Match: “She’s quite a graphic illustrator, who then contrasted with the next illustrator along, who was more narrative in their approach.” Another, Gerrel Saunders, came from the world of advertising, but was tasked with illustrating The Golden Man on account of having uncannily imitated the tones and textures of liquid gold in a campaign for Nike. “He did an amazing job,” said Leis Allion, “and it was great to get someone who hadn’t been a book illustrator before.”

Look beyond book illustrators

Both art directors felt as if they were asking illustrators to draw the undrawable. “When we were reading the texts,” Gee tells us, “we found that a lot of the stories were psychological, so the illustrators were having to be clever with how they envisaged the scenes – they wouldn’t be as obvious as a spaceship coming to earth.” Alongside this, a not-insubstantial amount of the short stories have already been made into movies and TV shows, too – everything from Total Recall to Minority Report – and so care needed to be taken to ensure illustrations drew from the original text rather than their on-screen adaptations.

With that in mind, Gee and Leis Allion drew together a host of different artists, “a great balance of people from all around the world,” in Gee’s words, “recent graduates to well-awarded illustrators.” And Leis Allion believes they wouldn’t be able to find those ideal illustrators if it wasn’t for a life of constantly looking out for them. “You have an image of what you want in your head and you’ve got to go down so many rabbit holes to find the right ones – going to student shows, doing a lot of scrolling on social media, gathering artists constantly until names jump out at you when the time is right.” 

Gee highlighted Yehrin Tong, who stood out for her bold pinball skull illustration for The Return Match: “She’s quite a graphic illustrator, who then contrasted with the next illustrator along, who was more narrative in their approach.” Another, Gerrel Saunders, came from the world of advertising, but was tasked with illustrating The Golden Man on account of having uncannily imitated the tones and textures of liquid gold in a campaign for Nike. “He did an amazing job,” said Leis Allion, “and it was great to get someone who hadn’t been a book illustrator before.”