Ellie Boultwood

Ellie Boultwood – Designer

I'm an award-winning children's book designer who has worked with the world's leading publishers. I'd love to help bring your book to life!

Overview

**Please note that I am fully booked until March 2025 but happy to take on projects after this date.


Hello, I'm Ellie! I have been a book designer for ten years, working for publishers including Penguin, DK, Little Tiger, Hachette, and Macmillan Books. Most recently, I was Senior Designer at Little Tiger Press, working in the picture books team. Before this, I was a designer at Priddy Books, where I designed innovative novelty books for children. I would love to bring this experience and expertise to your book!


If you take a look at my portfolio you can see a range of work from board books, picture books and novelty books, to older fiction. I love to design all kinds of books!


As a freelance designer, it's my priority to make the process as easy and efficient as possible for you. If you already have an idea of what you'd like, perfect! - we can work together to make that vision a reality. If you'd like some guidance, that's also great, and I'll put together some mood boards and cover ideas for you to check over before finalising a design. Depending on whether you'd like a photographic or illustrated book, I can either source copyright-free photos, or help you find an illustrator and work with them to create your dream book! I design both covers and internal layouts and am happy to do both or either for you.


Please note, I will happily provide print-ready files compatible with your choice of printer. Unfortunately I am unable to provide an epub as my skills lie with printed books, and children's ebooks are a separate field of expertise. However, I can create a pdf that you can convert to an epub using an online converter if you would like.


If you're interested, please do get in touch and we can have an initial chat about timelines, expectations and budget. Thank you.

Services
Non-Fiction
Children’s Non-Fiction
Fiction
Picture Books
Languages
English

Work experience

Self-employed

May, 2023 — Present

Freelance book designer, working with leading publishers and self-publishers.

Little Tiger Press

May, 2021 — Apr, 2023 (almost 2 years)

Working within the picture books team, I sourced and guided illustrators, designed layouts and covers, and created print-ready files.

Priddy Books

Mar, 2016 — Oct, 2020 (over 4 years)

Designed innovative and creative children's novelty books.

Dorling Kindersley

Oct, 2014 — Mar, 2016 (over 1 year)

Designed books for the licensing team including LEGO and Hasbro. Organised and directed photoshoots for LEGO reference guides.

Ellie has 16 reviews

Professionalism

Quality

Value

Responsiveness

Jennifer S.

Jennifer S.

Jun, 2024

Pinned
We are in the final steps of my picture book and Ellie has been a delight to work with. She's quick with message responds, has great insight, and has been a big help in the confusing word of self-publishing. I plan to write many more picture books and will happily work with Ellie again. Thank you Ellie!
Liz L.

Liz L.

Mar, 2024

Pinned
Ellie was so helpful and integral to my book coming to fruition. She’s extremely knowledgeable about the industry and makes great recommendations. My print files for two separate printers came back perfect because of her attention to detail. I would highly recommend Ellie!
Adam B.

Adam B.

Mar, 2024

Pinned
It’s been a complete pleasure working with Ellie. Always prompt and completely professional with a lovely manner which made communication so easy. Being a newcomer to the world of children’s books, I was particularly grateful for the guidance to help frame some of the questions I should have been asking at the start of the project.
Ed and Lauren F.

Ed and Lauren F.

Jan, 2025

Ellie is the consummate layout designer— her work is thoughtful, professional, well-crafted, artistic, and she has an excellent grasp of being able to communicate the heart and spirit of the story through her design. I was so thrilled with our work on our first book together that I couldn’t wait to start another! She is a joy to work with and an artistic gem in her craft. I would recommend Elli...
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Ellie B.
Thank you for such a lovely review!
Susan L.

Susan L.

Nov, 2024

Ellie has been instrumental in creating our first book in our children's series. She's responsive, accommodating, creative, and adds value not only with her exceptional design skills, but also with her intuition and heart. She's honest, encouraging, and a dream to have on our team! Thank you, Ellie!

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