Staff member redesigns The Foot Journal cover

Mr Ian Christie, Postgraduate Skills Tutor, at the TORT Centre was commissioned to redesign the front cover of The Foot, which is an international peer-reviewed journal covering all aspects of scientific approaches and medical and surgical treatment of the foot and ankle.

Ian was approached by Mrs Tanya Wheatley, Senior Publisher at Elsevier Limited, upon recommendation by the Editor-in-Chief of The Foot, Professor Rami Abboud to come up with four original draft designs from an open brief. After consultation between members of the journal’s editorial board and more than 30 journal reviewers a final design was chosen as the new cover.

Left to right: the new cover design; the previous cover; Ian at work on the design

Ian’s original background was as a greeting card artist and he still designs and paints in his spare time. His portfolio of recent work includes several logos for various companies and organisations, over 250 scientific poster designs, 12 stained-glass windows for a local church, and 3000+ medical and technical illustrations for use in Paper submissions and learning materials by the Department of Orthopaedic & Trauma Surgery. Last year he was commissioned to illustrate the covers of three children’s books, and has previously designed the Glastonbury Festival t-shirts of 2002 and 2005.

Professor Abboud stated: “It was a ‘no-brainer’ to recommend Ian to Tanya to undertake the cover design that I had in my mind to do since my appointment as Editor-in-Chief in January 2013. The journal needed a dynamic and visually stimulating cover to compliment its excellent content and Ian, as always, rose to the challenge and delivered a very balanced but stimulating cover to bring the journal’s cover into the 21st century. Ian’s attention to detail is exceptional and I am proud to have him as a colleague in my department and as a trusted friend”.

Ian himself added: “It was a pleasure working with Elsevier and the Editor-in-Chief on the new design. I wanted to make the design more contemporary and visually dynamic whilst maintaining the overall feel of the previous design so the cover was fresh but still recognisable as that of The Foot. My hope was to represent the many specialities associated with the foot and ankle so a collage-style design fitted the brief perfectly. I am pleased the editorial board was delighted with the work”.