100 years of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
For the past couple of years, I've been creating quarterly mini-magazines for the team at Agatha Christie Ltd. The content usually follows the themes of the annual reading challenge, but this year offered a unique opportunity to focus on a major milestone: the centenary of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, one of Agatha Christie's most celebrated and influential novels.
The visual concept you see above and below was the first idea that came to mind. Of course, presenting a single option was never going to be enough, so I developed four additional concepts for the team to consider—while quietly making the case that the original idea was the strongest of the bunch.
Thankfully, they agreed.
I'm incredibly proud of how the cover turned out and how it complements the fantastic editorial content created by Sarah and Ruby at ACL. Their features brought the anniversary to life, and it was a privilege to create a visual identity worthy of the occasion.
With the concept approved, I set about transforming the initial rough visual into the finished cover. I certainly don't consider myself an illustrator, which makes me even more pleased with how the final piece came together. Using a combination of sourced assets, custom-drawn elements and plenty of compositing, I gradually built up the scene layer by layer to achieve the final result.
Silhouettes were created from scratch, period-style windows were sourced to frame the composition, and after a surprisingly specific search, I even found a 3D hedge shaped like the number one that helped tie the centenary theme together perfectly.
I'm incredibly proud of how the cover turned out and how it complements the fantastic editorial content created by Sarah and Ruby at ACL. Their features brought the anniversary to life, and it was a privilege to create a visual identity worthy of the occasion.
For the accompanying video and social content, we deliberately moved away from the darker, more mysterious tone of the cover. Instead, we wanted to present the magazine as an accessible and enjoyable read—something that could be picked up and enjoyed at any time of day, whether you're a lifelong Christie fan or discovering her work for the first time
