Design & Illustration

What is Design & Illustration:

Sometimes a brief needs me to create my own design and illustrations. I can borrow from many illustration styles, but my own practice is fairly loose in style, using inks, pencil crayons, watercolour pencils and paints, building up layers and textures. 

I endeavour to create illustrations that are sensitive to the subject matter in the book therefore creating a bespoke cover that utilizes both my design and illustration skills.

When budgets are tight it makes sense for me to design and illustrate the cover rather than outsourcing the illustration. Other times, a brief aligns with my own illustration style and it therefore makes the most sense for me to create the artwork myself.

I can generate concepts for your project, taking illustrations from rough to beautifully finished products.

When is design and illustration the best approach?

What was the Brief?

MILK is Alice Kinsella's memoir of her first experience of motherhood: nine months of pregnancy and the first nine months of her child's life. It is lyrical, moving, and accessible; it also weaves in commentary on Ireland's relationship with its mothers.

The aim was to keep the hardback motif/illustration of the woman's face but move it on in a confident, warmer, and more open way with space needed for quotes. The aim was to warm up the paperback approach, possibly adding a child's face along with the mothers.

Who Were The Competition

  • a cream book cover featuring a detailed macro drawing of butterfly wings in blue pen.

    Thin Places by Kerri ní Dochartaigh

    For its calm approach and cream background which appealed to the current market in this area of publishing.

  • A book cover of a sketched woman holding a child possibly crying into her shoulder.

    Making Babies by Anne Enright

    For the subject matter and warmth.

  • A cream book cover featuring a a botanical stamp of a orange and green leafed plant with small flowers.

    Nobody Told Me by Hollie McNish

    For its simplicity in style and strong type approach.

What Was My Process

This brief was simpler, as there was an appetite to see an adaptation from the hardback design. So I set to work creating thick ink line drawings of the mother and child:

The Approaches

  • Book cover on a yellow background featuring an outline of six squares containing fragments of a line drawing within them. The line drawing is of a mother and child.

    Rough #1 Fragmented Snippets of Motherhood

  • Book cover on a yellow background featuring an outline of four squares containing fragments of a line drawing within them. The line drawing is of a mother and child. The title is on top in a chunky serif font. The palette is cream, black and magenta.

    Rough #2 HB Typography and Panel Device

  • Book cover on a yellow background featuring hand painted lettering and line word of a mother's face and child's face on a blue watercolour background.

    Rough #3 HB Watercolour and Hand Drawn Type

  • A book cover featuring a the hand painted lettering and mother child profiles facing one another. Black ink on cream paper.

    Rough #4 Simple Ink - THE WINNER!

The Winning Concept

The simple strong line work and matching typography creates a cohesive look for this paperback, with room for quotes. The eyes of the mother and the child were the most important part of the illustration. The connection with each other was key and helped add warmth to this cover.

I wanted to create a simple screen print of this illustration to pull all the parts together and give it strength in its rendering.

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“Katie, I can't thank you enough for your gorgeous work!”

Alice Kinsella (via Instagram)
Author of MILK

Learn more about what inspires me.

My story as an artist, book cover designer, seaside dweller and doing my MA.