The Round Robin Letters

The Round Robin Letters by Simon Hoggart came out just before Christmas, and is a very funny collection of Christmas yearly round-ups. Here is my cover - published by Atlantic books. 

Eleanor & Park

I was pleased to hear that a book I did the cover for, 'Eleanor and Park' by Rainbow Rowell recently made it on to the New York Times bestseller list! It's still selling well and is currently at number 12 on the Young Adult list. I've now got my copy and looking forward to giving it a read, it's had some great reviews! 

Eleanor & Park

Here is my cover for young adult novel 'Eleanor & Park' by Rainbow Rowell. The book is already out in the UK and will be published by St Martin's press in the US in February next year. The book is about a very intense first love between beautiful, troubled red-haired Eleanor, and quiet, cool, punk-rocker Park. Below are a couple of my black and white roughs.

Pea's Book of Best Friends

One of my favourite things to do is book covers, but it has to be said, they can be tricky! Covers have to be seen by lots of different people, including art directors, editorial, sales and marketing, as well as the author of the book, which can mean there is a lot of to-ing and fro-ing and changes to make until everybody is happy. This cover for Random House Children's kept going back and forth - it was going to be the first in a series so we had to be extra sure that it was just right! It's about a young girl, Pea Llewellyn who moves to a new house in London with her Author Mother and two sisters, trying to adjust to London life and most importantly trying to find a new best friend! I was asked to feature the house as a main focal point but try a few other things too. It was also important to get the characters in and fitting their written descriptions as best possible. I tried to stay away from too much pink or girly-ness as the main character is pretty cool and un-girly.

This was the final cover which everybody loved, but unfortunately it fell at the final hurdle, as we were told it wasn't 'sale-able enough' or something. A shame as it would have been good to be involved in a series... Anyway, the book is out now - it's got some great characters, is well written and very funny. The final cover is very nice and appealing (and it is pink!)

Moon Pie

Here is my cover for Moon Pie by Simon Mason, which comes out later this month, published by Random House. It is a children’s book, but the subject matter is quite heavy – it’s about a little girl and her brother trying to cope with their alcoholic father after the death of their mother. Although it sounds like it could be rather depressing, it is actually extremely well written and sensitively handled, and at times quite funny as well as being very moving.

Their brief was to do something typography based, along with any of my own ideas. Here are some of the initial roughs as well as a few colour ideas.

There was quite a lot of to-ing and fro-ing and changes to make until a final consensus was reached. I thought the large moon with a slice taken out of it like a pie worked well, but in the end they decided to go for a crescent moon. The Dad character was difficult to get right, as it couldn’t be too obvious that he was an alcoholic. At one stage he was on the roof, wobbling as if about to fall off, but this idea was a bit over the top! - so he ended up perched on the end of the moon.