Lucy Allen

Lucy Allen – Designer

Over 25 years designing educational and academic books, poetry and fiction at Weidenfeld, HarperCollins, Oxford University Press

Overview

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.

Services
Non-Fiction
Biographies & Memoirs Education & Reference ELT
Fiction
Literary Fiction Poetry
Languages
English

Work experience

Freelance

Apr, 2015 — Present

Oxford University Press

Sep, 1998 — Oct, 2014 (about 16 years)

HarperCollins Publishers

Mar, 1992 — Aug, 1998 (over 6 years)

Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd

Feb, 1988 — Mar, 1992 (about 4 years)

Routledge & Kegan Paul

Mar, 1986 — Feb, 1988 (almost 2 years)

Lucy has 2 reviews

Professionalism

Quality

Value

Responsiveness

Tim G.

Tim G.

Aug, 2021

Really enjoyed working with Lucy, great communication throughout the project and am really pleased with the design she came up with.
Lucy A.
This was a project that was fun to do and it was great to work with Tim.
Erica S.

Erica S.

Jun, 2021

Lucy was such a pleasure to work with. I am so pleased with how my book turned out. Now that my book is complete, I'm feeling a bit sad that our correspondence and collaboration is over. She was an easy person to communicate with and explained her process in detail and in a language that I could understand. She was patient, thorough, and personable. Her work is superb! I love the layout and the...
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