Book Illustration Coralie


Bickford-Smith The Fox and Star


Particular Books


David McConochie The Folio Book of Ghost Stories The Folio Society


Book Cover Illustration


Editorial Illustration


Bill Bragg But Today I am Afraid The Guardian


Jason Brooks London


Sketchbook Laurence King


Claudia Biele Small Creatures Such as We Are 10 Magazine


Tim Laing


The Radetzky March


The Folio Society


Marina Esmeraldo Game of Chance Arbuthnot Books


Simon Pemberton Shackleton’s Journey The Folio Society


Tom Clohosy Cole Go Set a Watchman The Guardian


Sheri Gee, art director at The Folio Society, praised the three illustrators behind her company’s trio of nominations (above). She told The Bookseller: “With The Radetzky March, Tim [Laing] proved his ability to bring atmosphere and sensitively observed characterisation to complex historical narratives; he manages to capture the essence of a scene, achieving with a pencil what it can take others hundreds of layers to create digitally.” Gee said McConochie’s “unsettling ethereal figure captures the genre perfectly”


for his nominated title; and she claims that when commissioning Pemberton, she sought “the perfect illustrator to capture the wilds of an impossible journey; a real-life mission that would decide the fate of 28 men. Simon gave me the perfect storm.” Gee said she was “delighted that he was happy with my suggestion to add a spot-varnish splash” to the Shackleton’s Journey cover.


more niche imprints, with Te Folio Society scoring a trio of nominations—Romaya says the driver of a book’s aesthetic is the market into which it is issued: “Coralie Bickford-Smith’s book is utterly beautiful; I think having an in-depth knowledge of book design, and having writ- ten the book herself, she will be instinctively aware of how the illustration will translate into the final book to create the perfect rhythm. Te look of a cover is very much led by the book’s content and the marketplace . . . the publisher is always trying to make it appeal to the right person. Sometimes it’s hard for


designers to get those briefs, [those] that lend themselves to beautiful illustration rather than a photographic approach, for example. “More and more book


covers are filled with knowing references to great design of the past,” Romaya replies when asked about current book cover trends and which practitioners she admires. “Most of Canongate’s design work is done in-house— there are three of us in the art department—and I occasionally work with Gray318, among others, which is always a pleasure. Regarding publishers, I’m a huge fan of Knopf in


the US, as its work is often very ideas-led and imaginatively executed. In the past few years Pushkin Press has reinvented itself and its book cover design is always on the money. And Visual Editions . . . what joy!”


Working together Clearly Romaya has an eye for talent; her collaboration with Tong was widely acclaimed—it also bagged a nomination in the British Book Design & Production Awards’ Cover Design category last year, and was strongly featured across the design blogosphere—and the pair continued their work together on a dual-edition paperback of Faber’s novel, a new Canons issue from Faber, Some Rain Must Fall, and a recently revealed poetry collection. Romaya says that “after the success of Te Book of Strange New Tings it


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was a natural decision to work with Yehrin again—and it’s been a joy”, adding that Tong’s unique aesthetic helps to bind together Faber’s genre-bending ouevre.


“We knew we wanted to keep the foil finish [from Strange New Tings], so it was built into the design from the outset. “For Some Rain


Must Fall, as it’s a book of short stories,


we wanted to capture the feel and atmosphere of the book, so the title appearing to shimmer and drip off the page was the perfect solution. For Undying, we wanted to create a moment of reflection: the moon glistening on the water gives a glimpse of this and how the two worlds are connected. Yehrin has produced something quite beautiful, something that has some of the magic and tranquil energy of Japanese printmaking.”×


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