Author: Thomas Mullen
Designer: Leo Nickolls
Publisher: Fourth Estate
Typefaces: Secret Scrypt, Grotesque MT, Woodcut Type
Treatments: matte lam, spot gloss on main image.
I'm not sure of the circumstances that led me to Leo's website, but I'm guessing it was meant to be. There is just so much visual richness and creative thought therein. This title is a great example of how versatile Mr. Nickolls really is. Peruse his website to see much more. Thanks Leo!
– Nate
I come from Norwich, East Anglia, and I work at home and in London
I’ve always loved book covers and I really got interested in book design when I was studying Graphics at Norwich School of Art and Design through looking at work by people like David Pearson, Jon Gray and Chip Kidd. Once I graduated I made a pest of myself around all the publishers in London until I got hired by HarperCollins as a freelance designer, and I haven’t looked back since! Since my website’s been up and running, I’ve started taking on work other UK publishers too.
Nope, have only ever done books.
Get up, design, drink tea, try not to get distracted by youtube and emails, turn computer off.
That’s not the first time I’ve heard someone say that about my covers. I don’t know really, I think I’m a bit of an oddjob designer, I just do as I’m told! It’s a lot to do with the area of Harper I was hired by, they just publish all sorts of books, and that’s the way I’ve worked from the word go.
I was given the brief for a book which had apparently done very well in the United States, and I was told to do something stylish, something which incorporated gangsters, gangsters molls, something glamorous, but a bit different, and a bit thriller-ish.
My immediate thought was to design it in the style of old forties-fifties movie posters, and the one that came to mind was Casablanca. I remember the picture sloping off towards the bottom with the title underneath and thought it would be a nice look for this cover.
To be honest, no, this was one of the easier projects I’ve done, in that the concept was clear and the editorial team were all in agreement in the tone of the book. I often find that books take a lot longer to go through if the brief is vague and publishers aren’t quite sure how the book should be marketed.
I’m not sure if there is a message as such, I just wanted it to look cinematic, and something a bit different to the stuff you normally see out on the bookshelves (and I wanted it to look more dynamic than the American cover).
I think conceptually it works quite nicely, I think the angle of the buildings and the spotlights help give the cover some ‘pull’, and overall I was just pleased with the drama of it.
