South of Midnight’s art book is a work of art itself

Not all art books are created equal. While some function as merely a rough compendium of sketches and concept art collected throughout the production of a game, movie, or television series, others rise to the height of being wholesale works of art — labors of love packed to the brim with creative insights and carefully constructed secrets, if not entire worlds unto themselves. The art book for South of Midnight, Compulsion Games’ latest action-adventure that’s set in a mythical take on the American Deep South, is one such example.

Published by Compulsion Games and Dutch art gallery Cook and Becker, The Art and Music of South of Midnight looks like a Southern gothic storybook pulled straight from its namesake’s universe. The physical edition of the 160-page art book, with its lovingly worn cover illustration and gold foil paper edges, comes with a double-LP vinyl set of the game’s soundtrack, an in-universe comic illustrated by artist Rob Guillory, and other assorted ephemera inspired by characters and locations seen throughout the game. Taken together, the art book is as much a love letter to South of Midnight’s production as it is a tangible product of it.

While art books are a modern staple of publishing, the process through which these books come about is often left unexplored and unexplained. To coincide with the official launch of South of Midnight, Polygon reached out to Whitney Clayton, art director at Compulsion Games, and Maarten Brands, CEO of Cook and Becker, to talk about how their collaboration first came about and what separates a good art book from a fantastic art book.

“We had been looking for a publisher to make a South of Midnight Art Book, and when Cook & Becker agreed we couldn’t have been more thrilled,” Clayton told Polygon in an email interview. “We love their work and the artistry they put into their books. The art and music for the game had been in progress since the start of production, so we had been working on it for a while.”

When it came to detailing the process behind the making of The Art and Music of South of Midnight, Clayton offered an extensive breakdown of what went into the making of the book behind the scenes. “We liked the idea that you’re taking a chronological journey through the world of South of Midnight, going in depth with the designs and processes behind the characters and environments you encounter on your journey, with a few pages dedicated to artistic disciplines outside of environments and characters such as UI art, our stop motion intro short, a South of Midnight comic, and some broader pages covering the higher level art direction. We really wanted the art book to feel like the folktale book present in South of Midnight, from the cover of the book to the journey inside.”

After a series of preliminary meetings, the team at Compulsion Games created a multitude of folders organizing all of the art pieces that coincided with the structure of the book’s concept, with complementary spreadsheets to track which art was needed for each section. Cook and Becker then took those assets and constructed a rough outline of the book’s layout and image spreads using PowerPoint. “From there, the artists on the Cook & Becker side arranged, cropped, [and] designed each page,” Clayton said, “incorporating the right images [while designing] the graphic treatment.”

While Cook and Becker worked on the book’s visual presentation, including creating custom small illustrations based on South of Midnight’s artwork, the team at Compulsion Games worked on the text for the book in-house. All in all, it took six months to produce the art book for South of Midnight from initial concept to final product.

The cover art for The Art and Music of South of Midnight, based on the storybook found within the game itself, was designed by Room 8 Studio, a Cyprus-based art studio with a track record of providing assets for other high-profile games, including Alan Wake 2, Dead Space, and Diablo 4. “South Of Midnight is a framed narrative told as a folktale and this storybook is represented inside the game,” Clayton told Polygon. “The fish scales are also from one of our concept artists. However, the physical way it’s presented, the materials; that’s all Cook & Becker. They had many very cool and creative ideas for this.”

One of those ideas that Brands is particularly proud of is the aforementioned gold detailing on the book’s cover and edging. “I love the whole package that we made, the art book with the gift box and vinyl LP that our friends at Lost In Cult designed,” Brands told Polygon. “I’m really proud of the work we delivered here.”

“Ultimately, the book is a major celebration of our team’s hard work, dedication and talent,” Clayton said. “I also think that those who appreciate art books will really love the stunning and thoughtful artistry by Cook & Becker and the way they designed this visual behind-the-scenes journey.”

The Art and Music of South of Midnight is available to purchase on Cook and Becker’s website.