How important is book design? In June 2020, BBC Culture set out to answer that question, noting that “covers can be a swift way to signal genre, but the good ones do more than that. They give face to a book’s personality. They’re what will make you pick it up in the first place, then keep it on your shelf to remind you what it meant to you.” These are the questions at the heart of Abigail Hawkes’ final project, producing a form of advertising for a young adult crime fiction novel, This Lie Will Kill You (Chelsea Pritcher, 2018). She explains: “I had no preconceptions about the book, or any of the work I might produce. Throughout the course of the project, I made notes about the main setting, the scene of the crime and the title. Researching typography, colour and layouts helped me make judgements about what would communicate the overall genre of crime fiction and reflect the book’s story line accurately.”
Artist Interview
