Daniel Weatheritt, a Northumberland-based illustrator and graphic designer, has won The Bookseller’s front cover design competition run in partnership with The Printing Charity for young designers.
As well as The Bookseller’s 15 December 2017 issue featuring his design, Daniel’s prize included a cheque for £200 and a year’s subscription to The Bookseller, which he received at the Futurebook Conference, Europe’s largest book publishing conference held in London on 1 December.
Daniel’s winning design was inspired by his fascination with books and all aspects of their production from concept, design and manufacture, through to their display and cataloguing in retail and library environments.
“The Printing Charity has such an inspiring and diverse history and my biggest challenge was figuring out which elements could work together in a well-structured, cohesive design,” Daniel explains. “A library of book spines emerged as the strongest design approach, giving a clear structure within which I could play with individual characters, themes and a large palette of colours.”
He used a traditional technique for the detailed drawing, and pencils, watercolours, dip pens with a range of ink colours, plus some coloured pencil overlay work to create subtle textured tones and patterns. Important text has been emphasised by switching from a vertical to horizontal axis.
His design incorporates a single vanishing point in the centre behind The Printing Charity book to assist with the optical illusion and show the volume being pulled from the shelf by two Bookbirds.
Daniel studied Graphic Design at Northumbria University, graduating with first-class honours and shortly afterwards set up his own business. He loves designing for print, producing handwritten typography, and favours traditional working methods. Daniel also runs Airship Nelson, his fictional travelling art airship, delivering graphic design and illustration workshops for children in schools, libraries and cultural venues across the North East.
Neil Lovell, our Chief Executive, says: “Daniel’s flair and passion for design is evident in his unique style and he impressed the judges with the way he fulfilled the design brief of bringing the charity’s 190-year history to life in a creative, informative way.
“In our own milestone year, it was great to run the competition with The Bookseller, the first time in its 159-year history that it has offered a young designer the opportunity to design an issue’s front cover.”