Lucy Allen – Designer

My greatest satisfaction comes from working in a team of people to produce a piece of work that we are all happy with. The process of sharing the information and background to a project is so important and I never underestimate the communication at the beginning that enables the eventual pulling together of all elements to create something that looks right and fits the budget.

I have worked extensively on English Language Teaching books for the adult market, doing interior design and covers. I have also been involved with developing design branding for primary and secondary level books for Macmillan Education. As well as getting the right structure and layout for these books, I have enjoyed producing lively facsimiles and creating infographics and icons that enhance the product and more importantly help the user to navigate and understand the text.

Whilst I was a text designer at Weidenfeld and Nicolson and HarperCollins I worked on more high profile projects – biographies with plate sections, as well as an extremely varied fiction list. I enjoy the subtlety and detailed typographical attention needed to design poetry books and it was a highlight of my career to work on J.M. Dent’s Centenary edition of Dylan Thomas’ poetry.