To be published by Liveright on the 200th anniversary of Napoleon’s death (June 15, 2021,) Ruth Scurr’s Napoleon: A Life Told in Gardens and Shadows is an unprecedented portrait of the Emperor seen through his engagement with the natural world.

Along with the brief for this project, Design Director Steve Attardo had given me a number of interesting images with which to play around and draw inspiration. One of them was this great image of Napoleon resting after working in the garden. I made a design around it. I decided to recolor the garden in blues reds and whites to have the garden symbolize France. I also thought the shot of blue would retail well. You’ll notice at this point of the process we had a different subtitle.