I preferred option 2, though unusually I was happy to go for any of the options. I often have a favourite and it becomes hard to let go of the one I loved, and then proceed with something else. The kids interviewed though loved number one; very mysterious and intriguing they said. So onwards we progressed. The final cover actually isn’t much different to the mock-up which is also quite unusual in the process. Usually I then spend hours and hours refining the cover to get to the final version. This one just needed a tidy up of Shawn’s face and voila!

This I thought was the end of the road for this book. I was really happy with the final product. We opted for a really thick varnish on all of the black areas to add some extra texture and the book itself looks pretty slick (even if I do say so myself).

A few months later, however the publisher called back. They were publishing an abridged version in The West Australian newspaper, 5 sections over 5 weeks and needed 10 illos to accompany it. Here’s where it got tricky.

The reason why the cover process was so quick was because I was working with silhouettes. I didn’t have to worry about eyes matching up, or hair colours or any of that tricky stuff. But now I had to take the cover silhouette and make illustrations to match. 10 full colour illos to feature alongside the abridged version of the book. Here they are;

Buy Jen’s fabulous story here

and in in situ, pride of place above my fireplace.

Thanks Libby and Robert. For anyone who would love to own the book- ask for it at your bookstore or order it from Fremantle Press. You can also read more about the project here and here.

This is what the publisher’s at Fremantle Press had to say about the book Hetty;

This is one of the remarkable, largely untold, stories of the Holocaust, a story of hope. It is a heartwarming tale that traces the extraordinary struggle and survival of a family through those terrible years.

Hetty was just twelve years old in 1943 when her family was torn apart following the German invasion of the Netherlands.

Rounded up by the Nazis and then separated from their parents, Hetty and her brothers were sent to the Children’s House, within Belsen concentration camp. Hetty became the ‘Little Mother’ of the camp, helping to care for the other children.

The Australian said the adult version of this book was a “powerful and chilling account” of the holocaust. The Australian Book Review called it “profoundly moving” and an “uplifting story”.

Here is the jacket that I designed for Hetty. Below this you will find the process of creating this jacket

Click below to see the process.

To design this cover I was given the top left passport-sized photograph and that is it. Considering the picture was taken before Hetty’s imprisonment I think we are lucky to have even that. The following are the components I made to create the cover.

Here is the case and jacket artwork along with the logo I designed and the pattern that embellishes the endpapers.

I think my particular love for this project comes from the trust that authors/photographers and publishers gave me. I had pretty much free reign over the aesthetics, although perhaps what made it work is that we agreed how the book should look. It has a heavy focus on the people of  Bhutan, working a lot like a photo documentary. There  is enough text to feel as though you know the place but the bulk of the book really belongs to the 200ish photos that grace it’s pages. Wanna know the best bit?

Libby emailed and said that because they love it so, so much, they will be printing the four of us who worked on the book (editor, publicist and publisher) a massive picture and framing it for us, the tough part though, will be choosing which image. Here is my sort of shortlist;

Katie’s brief was somewhat loose, she wanted “whimsical”. We had a few hits and a few misses in the design process but eventually came up with this, which I am very happy with.

So basically it is self explanatory and I think it sums up her business well. She is all about family connections in her portraits and particularly specialises in newborn and baby photography. The pink is actually a lovely peach, and as the market is mostly new mums and grandmas it’s femininity shouldn’t be a barrier for the target audience. Above all I love her business cards, branding is about a package, never JUST the logo. So when it is used in conjunction with her photos I think it really shines. Why so many designs I hear you ask? Well a photographer with a mini mobile folio sounds like a great idea to me.

Overall it was a very rewarding project, I look forward to doing more branding like this and of course I look forward to our portrait session, I will keep you posted.