SUBMITTED DESIGNS


DESIGNER OF THE YEAR


OVERVIEW New for 2021, this award celebrates the people whose work often goes unheralded but who are pivotal to publishing success. A mix of in-house designers and freelancers, they fused  and commercial sensibilities to produce some of the most visually striking and successful books of last year. In this category at least, you  book by its cover.


LUKE BIRD Formerly of Faber and Canongate, Bird has been in demand since going freelance in 2017. His bold, clean covers include Brandon Taylor’s Real Life, Andrew O’Hagan’s Mayflies and Earthlings by Sayaka Murata, for which he won an Academy of British Cover Design award.


YETI LAMBREGTS Lambregts started out in publishing on work experi- ence at Bloomsbury, and has risen via roles at Penguin and HarperCollins to deputy art director at Headline, where she steered the illuminated design of Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet. “Wonderful imagination and intuition,” said one colleague.


ANNA MORRISON A freelancer with experience at Random House, 4th Estate, Puffin and independent Pushkin Press, last year Morrison created the vivid silhouetted covers of Vintage’s Feminist Fairytales series. “Stunning designs… stylish and striking,” said one of her commissioners.


DAVID PEARSON Freelancer David Pearson was named one of Britain’s top 50 designers by the Guardian, as well as one of publishing’s most influential people by Te Bookseller. His colourful, striking covers have brought fresh style to Penguin’s back- list. “Smart and witty retro designs,” said one critic.


STUART WILSON Pan Mac’s design manager has brought his music industry experience to bear on book covers, and was the creative behind Douglas Stuart’s Booker-winning Shuggie Bain. His covers for John Cooper Clarke and Don DeLillo took a similarly distinctive mono- chrome approach.


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HOLLY OVENDEN Another in-house designer turned freelance, Ovenden has worked on Puffin’s new Modern Classics series as well as covers for authors including Avni Doshi, Anbara Salam, Frances Cha and Sophie Mackintosh; all show her flair for photographic composition, collage and hand lettering.


BEN PRIOR Head of Zeus’ cover designer produced eye-catching fronts for authors including David Gilman and Sebastian Fitzek in 2020. Like all of these shortlisted designers, his work goes far beyond covers though, creating impactful marketing collateral and brand and series identities too.


EMMA WELLS Emma Wells of Studio Nic & Lou created the striking, distinctive identity of the most successful publishing brand of the last few years: Pinch of Nom. Wells also freshened up the Joe Wicks brand for Bluebird in 2020, and designed Fearne Cotton’s Your Mood Journal for Puffin.


JANE BUCKLEY Simon & Schuster’s children’s division art director has been a crucial collaborator on its most successful picture books—sometimes a tricky area of design with competing creative visions. “Picture books are theatre, and Jane directs with creativity and flair,” said one colleague.


STEVE MARKING Orion’s art director was the design force behind the unex- pectedly high sales of Naoise Dolan’s début, Exciting Times, as well as books from Clare Chambers, Cathy Sweeney and Philippe Sands. Tey were characterised by distinctive typography and clever visual cues from the books.


SIMON & SCHUSTER


REDESIGN OF JOHN LE


DAVID PEARSONS


CAREÉS SMILEY NOVELS WAS A HIT FOR PENGUIN


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