Scientific American | Age of the Mammals
Cover image for the June 2022 issue of Scientific American, creative direction by Michael Mrak.
The article focuses on how mammals came to dominate the earth after the fall of the dinosaurs. In the progression of plants after a disaster, ferns are some of the earliest colonizers to bloom, and just after the dinosaurs the only mammals left (our mammal ancestors) were tiny rodent-like bug-eaters like these Cimolestes.
Examples of my working process, starting with small thumbnail samples showing potential layout variations for the cover and interior spread.