Baker . – Designer

Over the last 34 years I have been a design director, art director and graphic designer. My early years were spent designing record sleeves for various bands and artists like Genesis, Phill Collins and Diana Ross. And because of the similarities between music and publishing I found myself drawn towards that sector. Over the last ten years of my career I have been lucky enough to work with various authors and publishers creating book covers in the Fiction, Factual and Academic fields, I have no one particular area I like to work in as every new challenge deserves my full 100% attention to the task at hand and my one and only goal is to help the author and story come to life through the images/graphics on the jacket.

I love to discuss with the author every aspect of what they are trying to achieve when providing creative ideas, but I also try to make them understand that simplicity always wins over complexity when design a book jacket, the cleaner and bolder a design, the better it will draw people in, find the core message of a story and use that to create something that leaps out from the book jacket.

I also have project management experience when it comes to offering advice and direction on printing your book, I have worked closely with printers in the publishing industry liaising on the correct specification and type of book (hardback, paperback etc.) they you may want. I can also help with sourcing the right photo or illustration that you may wish to use on your book jacket. sometimes this may be an additional cost to you if you wish to purchase from photo libraries like Shutterstock but on other occasions images or illustrations can be sourced free from certain copyright free sites by giving a free credit to the owner. I do also have certain illustrative skills but these tend to be more on the graphic side but as I have said before a clean strong bold book jacket always stands out from the crowd compared to a jacket that tries to tell the whole story.