Dark Igloo & KidMograph

We were thrilled that Dark Igloo and KidMograph took on our humble request to create cover artwork for our Virtual Reality issue. The brief we gave them was to recall the heyday of VR from the ’80s/early ’90s as a jumping-off point for the issue. The idea was that this was the pinnacle of VR in popular culture, and it provides a common reference point to start from as we investigate the past, present, and future of VR. When we saw the resulting “Virtual Wonderland”—a flatland exploration of our past’s visions of a digital future—we knew we had something special. The final cover evokes a chrome and neon playground which could have been easily envisioned by Philip K. Dick and Bruce Sterling and inhabited by Kevin Flynn and Henry Case.