Blogs

Behind the scenes at the in-house Vintage Creativity Day

Ever wondered how our design teams create their fantastic covers? Back in November, the Vintage Design team decided to give their colleagues a taste of their day-to-day work with a special Creativity Day.

Featuring workshops in cyanotype, wax resist, hand lettering, letter press, and lino cutting and printing, there was plenty to get stuck into. Here's a little look at what was on offer...

Vintage creativity day

Cyanotype

Colleagues were given pressed flowers and feathers to create their cyanotype design...

Vintage creativity day
Before...
Vintage creativity day
Cyanotype is the earliest photographic printing process, and is similar to the technique used on the Vintage George Eliot covers
Vintage creativity day
...and after!

Hand lettering

... and got to try out hand lettering.

Vintage creativity day
The set-up
Vintage creativity day
Hand lettering is used on a number of vintage covers

Letterpress

There was the chance to create a quote card using the traditional letterpress method...

Vintage creativity day
A finished quote card
Vintage creativity day
Choosing the blocks of 'moveable type'

Lino cutting & printing

... as well as cutting letters of the alphabet into lino and printing them...

Vintage creativity day
A work in progress
Vintage creativity day
The finished result

Wax resist

... and colleagues were given a shot at using the wax resist technique.

Vintage creativity day
Wax resist
Vintage creativity day
Hanging up the artwork to dry

The Penguin Random House Student Design Award

Interested in cover design? Applications for the Penguin Random House Student Design Award 2018 are now open. The award, now in its twelfth year, aims to find the next generation of book cover designers by giving students interested in pursuing a career in design the opportunity to experience real cover design briefs first-hand.

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