The New Goodbye is an uber-collaboration, one which spans creative fields, skill sets, countries and time zones. The result is a sweet little iphone app, jam packed with features to delight and intrigue. 

The project was masterminded by Neil Ayres, author of the novel The New Goodbye. Neil put together his motley crew which included app-wizard Russell Quinn, fashion photographer Nicole Heiniger, myself and a whole gaggle of other willing souls to work on this distinctly different project.

 

The app centers around an iphone publication of Neil’s enchanting novel  ‘The New Goodbye’.

I’m a little old school when it comes to storytelling and in the past questioned the merit of moving from page to pixel. It is testimony to Russell’s skill as a developer that you glide intuitively from page to page, the words are soft to read and the screen glare I had feared is nothing but a gentle background glow. It really is a captivating reading experience.

I created little chapter indents which pepper the main story and feature in some of the extra treasures hidden within the app.

The main body of work I created was an illustrated interpretation of author Miguel Cervante’s ‘The Dialogue of the Dogs’ for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. The story centres around a conversation between Cipión and Berganza, two dogs who are one night miraculously granted the power of speech. They spend a moonlit night recounting the tales of their lives. Click here to see the artwork in full.

The original pen and ink artwork spans just over 2 meters, a panoramic visual narrative which mirrors the flow of the literary work. I love the concept of the iphone as an inky Pandora’s box; from within this pocket-sized device you can delve into my illustrated world of hounds, Spanish stately homes, black magic and war.

A sampler of the app is available to download free from the App Store, with the unlocked version (which features the Dialogue of Dogs artwork) a snip at just £1.79.

For more information on the project, click here.