The Cover Design Awards 2024 from Penguin Books UK

Now in its third year, Penguin Books UK’s book cover design competition was open to all applicants: 30 percent are non-students.

By Porter Anderson, Editor in Chief | @Porter_Anderson

Mentoring, tablets and design books for winners

BThe oversupply of book and publishing awards in the global markets means that we usually have to forego competitions that involve challenging, non-professional work – not because we do not value the promotion of potential talent, of course, but because the flood of awards for professional achievements consumes so many resources.

However, one element of book publishing is strangely not recognized by many award-giving bodies around the world: design. And, after all, it is design that can sell a book in a physical bookstore or online. This is why so many publishers insist that illustrators be credited in children’s books: the father or mother browsing the shelves in a store will be attracted first by that cover, not by the excellence of the text or the story, which is not even visible at that moment. The child who asks for a book has seen the cover of that book first.

Unless the name of a book (for adults or children) drives sales, the cover is the selling point for the consumer.

Penguin Books in the UK has once again run its Cover Design Awards programme and received more than 1,800 entries this year.

Applicants are tasked with working with covers of major Penguin titles selected by the company. Categories include a children’s cover design award, an adult fiction cover design award and an adult non-fiction cover design award.

The winning illustrators will be offered a six-month mentorship from a member of Penguin’s graphics department, which can be really meaningful for a talented designer ready to tackle professional challenges. These winners will also receive what the runners-up and third-place winners will each receive – a Wacom Intuos Pro Medium tablet and Penguin Random House design books valued at £100 (US$127).

Until 2022, the program was called the Student Design Award. But two years ago, the competition was opened to “anyone who wants to be a designer, regardless of their university degree.” The company explains that Penguin does not require a degree for its new hires, “so it made sense to remove this criterion to offer more people the opportunity to experience a real book cover design assignment and be mentored by one of our designers.”

The company is pleased, say spokespeople, because this change meant that a full 30 percent of the candidates on the shortlist this year were people who would not have been able to submit their work when the program was still limited to students.

Penguin UK Cover Design Award 2024: Children’s Books

Published cover design

Selected book: City of Stolen Magic by Nasneen Ahmed Pathak and illustrated by Sandhya Prabhat

The top three candidates in this category as assessed by the jury are:

1st Location: Charlotte Jennings

2and Location: Evan Connolly

3rd Location: Karin Keratova

Anna Billson, Art Director at Penguin Random House Children’s in London, commented in part as follows: “A well-deserved win for a very successful design. The intelligent use of colors and the thoughtful balance between the various illustrative elements together result in an eye-catching and inviting cover that opened the world in the book. The development from the first submission to the final draft was very good executed and shows a strong eye for design for both illustration and typography.”

Penguin UK Cover Design Award 2024: Adult Fiction

Published cover design

Selected book: Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

The top three candidates in this category as assessed by the jury are:

1st Location: Cadi Rhind

2and Location: Max Bicknell

3rd Location: Rebekah Sinclair

Commenting on the judges’ reasoning for choosing the Rhind design, Richard Ogle, Art Director at Transworld, said: “This design is a worthy winner. The use of type and colour demonstrates a confidence that reflects and builds on references to the 1970s aesthetic. Cadi’s memories of family car journeys, where her father’s penchant for 1970s music, such as Eagles and Joni Mitchell, provided the soundtrack, really seem to have filtered into the authentic yet contemporary resonance of the design.”

Penguin UK Cover Design Award 2024: Adult Non-Fiction

Published cover design

Selected book: Atomic Habits: A simple and proven method to build good habits and avoid bad ones by James Clear

The top three candidates in this category as assessed by the jury are:

1st Location: George Griffiths

2and Location: James Gregory

3rd Location: Craig Ferdinando

Richard Bravery, art director at Penguin General, describes the work in a commentary on Griffith’s design as follows: “A beautifully layered, well-crafted design that subtly alludes to the story of change and habit.”

“We loved how George combined collage with this theme to create a striking and genre-bending design. A worthy winner.”

Further information about the PRH-UK Cover Design Award can be found here.

For more information from Publishing Perspectives on book cover design, click here, for more on the myriad book and publishing competitions in the global industry, click here, and for more on the UK book publishing market, click here.