Design - Print, Products, Illustration, Maps and Diagrams
My design career has taken me from the wonderfully specific to the decidedly generic,
Work in Graphic Design, am I right…right?
One of the most significant and long-running creative relationships of my career began in a rather unexpected way. In the early days of bestselling Australian author Matthew Reilly's career, my good friend Ché Baker brought me on board to help Matt turn the opening ten minutes of his first novel, CONTEST, into a proof-of-concept film. Matt himself played the lead character, and while the project never became the feature film we initially imagined, it was the beginning of a creative relationship that has continued for more than a decade.
After working with Matt on various projects over the following years, I was brought in for The Great Zoo of China in 2014. From there, I've gone on to create story-specific internal illustrations, technical diagrams, maps, endpapers and inside-cover artwork, as well as designing most of the covers for his novels through to the present day. The work is particularly rewarding because every illustration has to serve the story—whether that's explaining a complex piece of technology, a deadly trap, mapping an imaginary location, visualising a creature or helping build the world inside the reader's head.
Feature Film & Screen Graphics
Before embarking on a 23-year career in sports television, I was fortunate enough to spend time working in the art departments of several feature films, including Superman Returns, Fool's Gold, The Condemned and Nim's Island. My role was to design the screen interfaces and visual graphics used on set, often working closely with the production and art departments to create displays that actors could actually interact with and that looked convincing on camera.
It's a very different challenge to designing graphics for television. These screens aren't simply there to look good—they need to support the story, make sense within the fictional world and give the actors something believable to respond to, often while being shot from multiple angles and under the unforgiving scrutiny of a cinema camera.
Years later, some of those connections in the film industry came back around, and I found myself designing title sequences and screen graphics for independent and feature productions including Blue World Order and Matthew Reilly's Netflix film Interceptor.
Alongside the more specialised work, I've also spent plenty of time doing what could generously be described as "normal graphic design." Brochures, corporate material, logos, Movie Posters, layouts, promotional artwork and all the other assorted jobs that occasionally arrive with the words "Can you just quickly put something together?" It's given me a broad understanding of typography, layout, branding, print production and the practical realities of designing work that actually needs to be produced and used and at least considered, regardless of how un-considered it might usually be.
I've also had a long-running creative relationship with Mighty Car Mods, designing most—but not quite all—of the merchandise sold through their online store. I'm particularly proud of the T-shirt designs that have become recognisable among the MCM community and are now worn by fans around the world.
Whether it's a highly detailed map buried inside a novel, a book cover sitting on a shelf, a logo on a sticker or a T-shirt being worn at a car meet, I enjoy the challenge of making graphic design that has a purpose, tells a story and—ideally—makes someone want to look at it twice.
Design Reel 2026
A fast-moving collection of some of the design work I've created over the years—from Matthew Reilly's book covers, maps and internal illustrations to Mighty Car Mods merchandise, branding, print and the occasional "can you just make this look good?" job.
Interceptor was a particularly fun project. Matt approached me during the development stage to create a range of visual concepts that could help pitch the film and establish its visual language. I developed concepts for the opening sequence, titles and map graphics—and, somewhat unusually, when the film was eventually greenlit, some of those original pitch concepts survived all the way into the finished movie. Not a bad result for something that started life as a pitch.
I continue to take on film work sporadically when opportunities arise, designing on-set screen graphics, title sequences, interfaces and other story-driven visual elements. It's a part of my career I particularly enjoy because it sits somewhere between graphic design, filmmaking and storytelling—creating visuals that need to exist convincingly inside another world.
Feature Film Reel 2026
A selection of screen graphics, interfaces and title sequences created across feature film productions including Superman Returns, Fool's Gold, The Condemned, Nim's Island, Blue World Order, Staes of Mind and Matthew Reilly's Interceptor. From on-set displays designed for actors to interact with through to finished title sequences and opening graphics, this reel captures some of my work from behind the scenes of the big screen. Yes, all my friends are featured in the email inboxes…
Past Projects
Here are the many covers and internal artworks I’ve done for Best Selling Author Matthew Reilly, plus other design work than manifests itself into the “real” world - I mainly work in the screen space, but it’s nice to produce an actual physical work that people can see and hold; Books, T-Shirts, Posters, Brochures - all the classic stuff as well as some purely Art related things just for the sake of because Art.
MATTHEW REILLY - Main Cover
Jack West JR and the Chinese Splashdown
MATTHEW REILLY - Main Cover
The Four Legendary Kingdoms
MATTHEW REILLY - Main Cover
Jack West JR and the Hero’s Helmet
MATTHEW REILLY - Main Cover
The Great Zoo of China
MATTHEW REILLY - Interceptor
Personnel Files for Interceptor Screen graphics
MATTHEW REILLY - Main Cover
Mr Einstein’s Secretary
MATTHEW REILLY - Main Cover
Roger Ascham and the King’s Lost Girl
MATTHEW REILLY - Main Cover
The Two Lost Mountains
MATTHEW REILLY - The Detective
Internal Illustrations
Work
Here’s a selection of internal maps and illustrations for Matt’s latest (soon no be second latest) novel THE DETECTIVE - all up around 47 internal illustrations, and endpaper map and cover concepts - the final cover was not in fact my design, but I made a few that were pipped at the post
MIGHTYCARMODS - Merchandise
Designs and Logos
Work
Here’s a selection of merchandise available through MightyCarMods which i designed and had produced through the shop - of course there are many more than what is featured here and I also do all the packaging design that the merch comes in.
MATTHEW REILLY - Main Cover
Troll Mountain Paperback
MATTHEW REILLY - Main Cover
The Three Secret Cities
MATTHEW REILLY - Main Cover
Seven Ancient Wonders - Hardback
MATTHEW REILLY - Main Cover
The One Impossible Labyrinth - Harback
MATTHEW REILLY - Endpapers
Contest 30yr Anniversary - Hardback
MATTHEW REILLY - Main Cover
King’s Ransom - Sam Speedman Book 2
MATTHEW REILLY - The Four Legendary Kingdoms
Internal Illustrations
Work
Here’s a selection of Internal story based diagrams, tables, illustrations and maps from the Four Legendary Kingdoms. There were 52 in total to do - and these ones were quite tricky in that a bit of 3D was required to fully explain the layout of some of the elaborate settings - and all this was hidden under a mountain - who would have thought it!
MIGHTYCARMODS - Turbos & Temples III
Art Book layouts and design
Work
Layout, Design and general creative on the mega 142 page art book, which utilised all the still photography taken behind the scenes of the feature length episode of Turbos & Temples III. The main task was to select photos in rough groups then present them in creative ways - 142 times, then handle page preparation for print.
MISC. Designs
Photoshop + Illustrator
Work
These are more artworks than anything else - a selection of random design challenges purely for arts sake - and a few movie posters thrown in for good measure… there’s some 3D floorplans in there, some digital avatar characters, some photography and a couple of movie posters thrown in…
Work
Technical diagrams showing the power output of the various cars on the Dyno - can be easily updated and changed per run. And I’ve also included some gear ratio diagrams and speaker exploded view, because some people may need to see I can do technical explanations for user manuals and explainer videos.
MCM Custom Dyno Representation
Photoshop + Illustrator
