Jet Purdie ∵ Book Cover Designer / Illustrator

by Sarah Elizabeth Cox
Book cover design by Jet Purdie

I said yes right away when Hannah MacDonald at Duckworth Books asked if wanted to design a cover for book about a Black Victorian Boxer.

For this project I took inspiration from D’Angelo’s Voodoo album cover. Cloning the warm greys in the grainy black white photo and mimicked the grungy, screen print texture of the red block.

Typographically, I looked at Victorian boxing bill stickers, screen grabbing some from the Disney+ series A Thousand Blows. I limited the type colours to just black, like the Victorian bill stickers.

With the layout, I didn’t want to mess with the photo too much, or have type over Hezekiah, and I’d always wanted to design a cover like The Upstairs Delicatessen designed by @junepark___ or When Women Ran Fifth Avenue designed by @emilymahon_covers

Sarah Elizabeth Cox wrote a blog post in 2019 that resurrected Hezekiah Moscow and inspired the Disney+ series A Thousand Blows.
https://grapplingwithhistory.com/2019/05/07/where-did-you-go-hezekiah-moscow/

Thank you for the project Hannah

#oi.spooky
#duck_books
#bookdesign
#bookjacket
#bookcoverdesign
#bookjacketdesign
#diseñodelibros
#conceptiondelacouverturedulivre
#designdellacopertinadellibro

The Devils
by Joe Abercrombie

I designed this UK adapt of the US edition (2nd image with red background) by awesome designer Will Staehle / Unusualco.

I kept most of Will's type, the crown and the skull, then added gold foiled smoke, drew some gold, religious, flame rays, added black and blue background flames, re-worked the candle flames, added stars and switched-up the colours.

We felt the UK market wanted more foil : )

by Lixing Sun

Design by Jet Purdie
Illustrations by Ernst Haeckel… but the egg is by Adolphe Millot

I had never designed a Science jacket before and the best comp covers were by Suzanne Dean and Rodrigo Corral – arguably the two strongest cover designers in the game – which was a fair bit of pressure, knowing whatever I created would have to sit on a shelf alongside their designs.

Thankfully I stumbled on some old illustrations by Ernst Haeckel, a German zoologist, naturalist, marine biologist and artist.

I worked with several Haeckel images, colouring-up the mushroom, which was originally greyscale.

Typographically, I wanted to guide the viewer’s eye diagonally, down, from top left to bottom right.

Profile Art Director Steve Coventry-Panton suggested I add a lizard and an egg, which I was totally happy with.

The title changed halfway through the project, but thankfully the new one was the same length and allowed me to keep the same line breaks and point sizes.

Thank you for the cool project Steve ; )

by Shylashri Shankar

Book cover / jacket design and illustration by Jet Purdie

💎🦂

I really enjoyed creating this cover as it had loads of brilliant story elements. Again, I got to add a creature in the title type and this time it was stealing off with a diamond. Canelo and Shylashri didn’t pull me up on the fact that the scorpion doesn’t steal a diamond, they just went with the flow. Thank you  ; )

In Blood Caste Chief Inspector Soobramania and Inspector Wilberforce don’t get off to a great start, but on the Scorpion Palace cover I wanted them to slowly begin to trust one another a tiny bit more. With Scorpion Palace I had less height due to additional text, so I decided to sit the boys down and give them a cup of tea. This helped with the lack of available height and also Brought the pair together. I researched the Falaknuma Palace and thankfully there was a balcony where people have tea. A little touch I like is that the cane and swords are not in their hands, and casually resting against the balcony arch.

On the back cover there is an albino panther perched on another balcony, calmly resting in the shadows of palm tree leaves.

Thank you Craig for this brilliant project and Shylashri for approving the concept.

By book 3 I hope to have the boys even closer, maybe even looking out for each other.

@canelo

@canelocrime

@craiglye

@evelknevile

#shylashrishankar

#falaknuma

#bookdesign

#bookjacket

#bookcoverdesign

#bookjacketdesign

#diseñodelibros

#conceptiondelacouverturedulivre

#designdellacopertinadellibro

#bookcoverillustration

by Jim Windolf

About twelve years ago, my friend Tristan Hanks and I were standing outside the Slaughtered Lamb pub in Clerkenwell when Paul McCartney appeared from a building a couple of doors down. He clocked we’d spotted him. There was no one else around as he waited for his driver to appear. Tristan suggested we go say hi, but – me being traumatised by the Paul McCartney and Wings song Jet – I said, “Nah, be cool. Lets leave him alone”. I instantly regretted it as I realised Tristan would’ve loved to have had an interaction with the man. Just then, Mr McCartney’s car pulled-up, but – thankfully – Paul gave us a really sweet thumbs-up and wink as he hopped in the back of his motor. We smiled and nodded back, playing it cool until his car disappeared around the corner, then we were like “Oh my god!“ and “Did you see that!?” : )

A big thanks to Lily McIlwain and Lee Brackstone for letting me get away with the crazy layout and thank you Jim Windolf for letting me put your name vertically. Shows how cool, different and adventurous they all are… and it lets the reader know Where the Music Had to Go won’t be the same old story.

The right and left aligned style typography was stolen from Art Director Steve Marking. I used to occasionally artwork covers for Steve and I picked-up a few tricks while I was in his files.

It wasn’t easy finding images from 1965 that felt like Bob and the Beatles were interacting, and avoiding favouring one over the other. The main aim was to have some connection between Bob and George. In reality the image of the Beatles was them playing with scalextric cars.

Thank you Picture Researcher Natalie Dawkins.

Originally the rough had an Yves Klein blue title… but that was the only change, so I can’t grumble.

#stevemarking_design
@vinylsecretary
#jimwindolf
#whiterabbitbooks

by Catherine Newman
Art Direction by Beci Kelly
Design & illustration by Jet Purdie

This project involved me using a True Grit (Rusty Nib) brush in Procreate to trace over stock imagery (plate pattern) and my own (blurry) photos. Spontaneous and fun.

I loved the original We All Want Impossible Things cover – designed by Art Director Beci Kelly – so I was honoured when Beci asked me to re-jacket the cover in my style. We stuck with the lemon polenta cake on a Japanese Kintsugi plate concept.

Thank you Beci for this lovely project and thank you for sending me copies in the post! : ) xX

Kintsugi, 金繕い , "golden repair"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kintsugi

by
Valerie Martin

Cover design: Jet Purdie
Art direction: Steve Coventry-Panton
Publisher / Imprint: Profile Books / Serpent's Tail

I really enjoyed designing Mrs Gulliver for Valerie Martin. It was my favourite project of 2024. I especially enjoyed searching for the perfect 1950s photo and working with Steve, who gave lovely and clear feedback and made great suggestions.

Steve later asked if I could take one of my old Mrs Gulliver roughs to final art for the paperback edition.

The rough in question had a palm tree shadow and a 1956 BMW 507 🤪

Elvis bought a BMW 507 when he did his military service in Germany. His fans left so many red lipstick marks on the white paintwork he had it sprayed red hoping they would stop 💋💋💋

The image of the woman adjusting her stockings is Hollywood actress Fay Spain, taken from the 60’s movie The Private Lives of Adam and Eve. Coincidentally, Elvis's girlfriend - Tuesday Weld - was also in the film. I'm not an Elvis nut by the way, he just kept popping-up as I did research for this project.

by Zeke Faux

Design by Jet Purdie
Based on the US cover by Christopher Brand
Coin illustration by Tim O’Brien
Art Direction by Steve Marking
Creative Direction by Nick Shah

I used the coin from the US cover, added a glitch effect in Procreate and gave it a How Westminster Works off white background and some similar type.

by Keith Carter

Book jacket design and illustration by Jet Purdie

Procreate brush: Jing Paint / Chalk

I loved creating the Lucidity cover, even though the project dragged-on for a year, with a re-brief, re-title and Neem Tree Press / Unbound / Boundless sadly going into liquidation after merging. I didn't think I'd get paid for this one, but thankfully the CEO paid in full, days before they closed. Hopefully Keith will find another home for his story.

We never settled on a colourway, so I've included my top three 😢

#bookdesign
#bookjacket
#bookcoverdesign
#bookjacketdesign
#diseñodelibros
#conceptiondelacouverturedulivre
#designdellacopertinadellibro
#bookcoverillustration

Neanderthals Among Us
by Peter Sahlins

Book cover design by Jet Purdie

A quick and fun project with Art Director Hayley Warnham at Oneworld Publications, that featured various flints with different ideas of how Neanderthals have been perceived over time.

Also included are rejected roughs.

Thank you Hayley! : )

#petersahlins
@hayleywarnham
@oneworldpublications
#bookdesign
#bookjacket
#bookcoverdesign
#bookjacketdesign
#diseñodelibros
#conceptiondelacouverturedulivre
#designdellacopertinadellibro
#bookcoverillustration

Wreck by Catherine Newman

Design & illustration by Jet Purdie

I think this might be the first time I’ve done a cover with an orange Penguin logo, so I was really happy to create it for Art Director Beci Kelly at Penguin, Transworld.

I think I had a week for initial roughs, so it was fast-paced... but fun.

I enjoyed the project as I got to photograph random objects (with my terrible phone camera) then trace them with a True Grit (Rusty Nib) brush in Procreate.

I’d seen a Catherine Newman cover with a slice of lemon polenta cake on a broken Kintsugi (golden joinery) plate a while back and thought I wish I’d done that, so it was lovely to be offered a Catherine Newman brief.

Originally I had a cat swiping a mug of coffee off a table, but that got killed (the concept, not the cat) then I had an owl perched on a rail crossing sign… also killed. Thankfully Beci let me pop the owl on the back cover, so I was happy : )

Thank you Beci for this fun project : ) x

Design by Jet Purdie

This is a non-official, personal challenge project, that involved me re-jacketing books I already owned.

by Catherine Newman

Another great project from Art Director Beci Kelly.

This project involved me tracing over blurry iPhone photos, trying to get the stray cat in my garden to sit still long enough to get an infocus pic (no such luck). Again, I used a True Grit (Rusty Nib) brush in Procreate so it – kind of – married up with the other two Catherine Newman covers.

Beci let me put a rejected concept (bikini on a washing line) on the back. Cheers Beci.

Thank you Beci for this lovely project and thank you for sending me copies in the post! : ) xX

by Shylashri Shankar

Book cover Design and Illustration by Jet Purdie

Chief Inspector Soobramania is called when three bodies are discovered in the space of twenty-four hours, with mutilations bearing an eerie resemblance to Jack the Ripper’s victims. Initial suspicion centres on an English Duke visiting Hyderabad and his friend, a powerful Deccani noble and the angry stepson of one of the dead. In the face of political pressure, Soob must ally with his rival in the British Residency Police to unearth the culprit in a cat-and-mouse game – played in the shadow of imperial politics where high birth protects foul deeds, and where blood counts for less than riches – before the killer strikes again…

by Adrian Michael Kelly

Design by Jet Purdie

Photo of Canadian swimmer Vicki Keith, 1988, by Bernard Weil, for the Toronto Star.

This was the first time I designed for a Canadian publisher and I really enjoyed working with Jess Albert and EWC Press.

The memoir involves bad luck and the author being a tad oblivious to his relationship at times, so I tried one route with a dog peeing on his shoe (like the drunk, suicidal santa scene in the 80's Trading Places movie) and another route where the with the author happily writing while his lief is on fire, inspired by KC Green's 2013 web comic or the "This is Fine" meme. Admittedly these might have been a bit close to the bone... but I could tell by the writing the author would get I wasn't being mean, as it kinda echoed the text. The head in the clouds route was about chasing dreams and neglecting work. The author loves swimming so I tried options involving water, like the one where he's sinking or the approved option with Adrian blissfully enjoying a swim. I loved that EWC let me spit and jumble A Memoir 🐳

Thank you EWC / Jess Albert

by Veronica Heley

Book cover design & illustration by Jet Purdie

Publisher / Imprint: Canongate Books / Severn House

Photography by Margaret Mitchell
Design by Jet Purdie
Author name hand lettering by Rachael Lancaster
Art Direction by Steve Marking
Creative Direction by Nick Shah

Creating this cover for author Tom Newlands (cool guy!) was a lovely experience. There were some cool coincidences, like Tom and the photographer both being from Stirling and Tom having even learnt to drive on the very street featured in the photo. As well as being a brilliant photographer, Margaret was an absolute pleasure to work with

by David Finkle
Published by Plum Bay Books
Book cover design by Jet Purdie

by Dan de Visé

Design and Illustration by Jet Purdie
Art Direction by Steve Marking

Steve knew I was a Blues Brothers fan and all things blues and soul, so I am SUPER grateful for this project. THANK YOU Steve! : )

Big shout out to Lee Brackstone and the editors for being cool with Steve and I adding random text (White Rabbit Presents) to make the cover look more like a 60’s showprint blues poster.

And a A big thank you to Orion's Picture Researcher, Natalie Dawkins for juggling the legal side of things.

by Carys Green

Design by Jet Purdie

I really enjoyed creating Always In My Mind for Harvill Secker / Penguin Random House.

A minimal, domestic setting was called for... so I came-up with the idea of double vanity sinks and mirrors, which allowed me to add a hint of romance with the condensation heart and an eerie reflection of the husband.

Deputy Publishing Director Katie Ellis-Brown suggested the fun idea of adding multiple colours through the artwork.

Death by the Sea
by Hannah Ellis

Design and illustration by Jet Purdie

Title hand lettering based on Trajan with certain letters made more condensed.

There was a lot of me tracing blurry iPhone photos in this project 😊

Previously everything was on a table and it wasn't working... then I turned off that layer and – BOOM! – it worked!

Thank you for the project Will Speed @wrmspeedcovers You were sweet and helpful.

Sorry I can't do the rest of the series Hannah, but Amazon are liberty-taking, cheapskates

by Margaret Meyer

Design by Jet Purdie
Illustration by James Nunn and Jet Purdie
Art direction by Charlotte Abrams-Simpson

I artworked The Witching Tide hardback for awesome art director Charlotte Abrams-Simpson in the summer of 2023. It was a fair bit of work transforming James Nunn’s gorgeous linocut print into a blue pantone and intricate foil guide… but the result was gorgeous.

Several months later, I was really happy when Charlotte asked if I would create the paperback version, keeping elements of James’s hard back art but also adding some new stuff.

We decided to keep James gorgeous wheat and clouds and I illustrated a British bird of prey (all of them squished together) and reworked a hare from Shutterstock. The hardest part was probably re-drawing all the tall grass in James’s style.

I really like the end result and I hope James does too : )

Allies at War: The Politics of Defeating Hitler
by Tim Bouverie

Cover design by Jet Purdie
Bodley Head / Vintage / Penguin Random House

After the fall of France in June 1940, only Britain stood between Hitler and total victory. Desperate for allies, Winston Churchill did everything he could to bring the United States into the conflict, drive the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany apart and persuade neutral countries to resist German domination.

By 1942, after the German invasion of Russia and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the British-Soviet-American alliance was in place. Yet it was an improbable and incongruous coalition, divided by ideology and politics and riven with mistrust and deceit. Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin were partners in the fight to defeat Hitler, yet they were also rivals who disagreed on strategy, imperialism and the future of liberated Europe. Only by looking at their points of conflict, as well as of co-operation, are we able to understand the course of the war and world that developed in its aftermath.

by Mette Ivie Harrison

Book jacket illustration and design by Jet Purdie

This was a quick and fun project with Severn House

The art deadline was brought forward a week, so I only really had time for one visual in a variety of colours. Thankfully Severn House and the author liked it.

I had fun illustrating a burning, vandalized and spray-painted sports car. The F**k You may or may not make it to print : )

River of Words: Joni Mitchell at the BBC
by Tom Hagler

Art Director: James Empringham
Book cover design: Jet Purdie
Publishing Director: Joe Cottington
Imprint: Welbeck (Hachette UK)

I probably took this project on because of a cute memory of my Dad playing guitar and singing Joni’s Big Yellow Taxi to my daughter several years back : )

Thank you for the fun project James!

#riverofwords
#bbc
#welbeckpublish
#hachetteuk
#jonimitchell
#bookdesign
#bookjacket
#bookcoverdesign
#bookjacketdesign
#diseñodelibros
#conceptiondelacouverturedulivre
#designdellacopertinadellibro
#bookcoverillustration

I was very happy to take on the re-jacket of Alfred Lansing’s Endurance.

The challenge was adding movement and energy to a ship that is frozen in ice, but with some radial blur, tilting the image askew to pass the ice off as ocean waves, some dramatic clouds, pretty colour washes and a map, we gave this classic a C🥶🥶L and contemporary re-fresh!

Art Direction by Steve Marking and Henri Holz
Design by Jet Purdie
Published by Orion Publishing Co

by Simone de Beauvoir

Design by Jet Purdie

I was honoured to design a Simone de Beauvoir title, especially for amazing Creative Director Suzanne Dean.

Brilliant Picture Editor Lily Richards found several gorgeous photos… but Lily and Senior Editor, Charlotte Knight quickly fell in love with a Saul Leiter’s photo called Carol Brown, Harper’s Bazaar, 1958. The photo was commissioned by Esquire (I’m guessing they own both mags) but sadly went unpublished. The Saul Leiter Foundation agreed to let Lily licence the photo as I luckily hadn’t altered the image, cropped it or overlayed any type.

Typically I’d use a bright background colour… but I felt Simone de Beauvoir called for something a bit classier and I didn't want to over-power the Leiter photo, so I opted for a blue/grey background and a warm, off-white border and title colour.

I love that this title is a B format hardback, as I prefer smaller, lighter books. I can’t wait to see it in the shops! : )

by Alice Leigh

Book cover jacket design and photomontage by Jet Purdie

Published by Canelo Crime

A Clockwork Orange
by
Anthony Burges

Designed by Jet Purdie

WARNING
This design may trigger seizures or migraines for people who are photosensitive. Viewer discretion is advised.

When this still image is viewed at desktop size the middle pattern spins clockwise. You can stop the spinning by squinting.

Self-initiated project, crashed-out in a morning, to get the idea out of my head. Designing it gave me a migraine.

by Nicholas George

Book cover / jacket design and illustration by Jet Purdie

This was a fun commission from art director Piers Tilbury at Severn House, as I was able to do most of the work in Procreate… in the garden! : )

Publisher / Imprint: Canongate Books / Severn House

by Clare Chambers

Design by Jet Purdie
Based on the original design by Edward Bettison - the guy that designed a lovely edition of The Colour Purple ; )

by
Candy Harper

Kiana Palombo at White Fox commissioned me to create Candy Harper’s new cover, for a book about two girls that wish for different lives and time travel through an old hand mirror.

Kiana, WhiteFox and Candy were all really cool and gave me loads of creative freedom and the end result was something everyone - including myself - was really happy with : )

Parts of the girl in the top right corner came from an old public domain illustration of Cinderella by the hugely talented Arthur Rackham (1867 – 1939). I gave Arthur’s character new shoes, new arms, a pearl necklace, a new dress and changed her body so it looked more like Alice in Wonderland time travel falling, rather than Cinderella running. I think Arthur Rackham might be my favourite silhouette artist.

As I created the cover I thought about what kid’s my daughter’s age were into… boba (bubble tea), “aesthetic” bedroom posters, smartphones, horribly expensive Jordan sneakers and Olivia Rodrigo. I did my best to inject some of those onto the cover to help convey one of the characters was contemporary and the other from the past. Bubble tea, mobiles and trippy background textures weren’t in the brief, but Kiana and Holly were very cool and went with it… maybe because they know books are competing with these things. To make the cover extra dramatic I gave the iPhone a dying battery symbol - every child’s worst nightmare : (

Here is my hilariously terrible stick person doodle. Had Kiana seen this she may have kicked me off the project : )

This project was an absolute pleasure. Thank you so much Kiana

by Guy Doza

Book cover design by Jet Purdie

Design by Jet Purdie
Illustration by Saul Steinberg

This is a non-official, personal challenge project, that involved me re-jacketing books I had recently read.

by Anne Sebba

Design by Jet Purdie

Art by Mieczysław Kościelniak

Mieczysław Kościelniak was a Polish painter who lived between 1912 and 1993. Mieczysław was a prisoner at Auschwitz. During his time at Auschwitz, Mieczysław secretly drew approximately 300 drawings, documenting the everyday life of prisoners; these drawings are in the collections of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oświęcim.

Thank you Nat Dawkins for working hard to get the high res art from  Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and for getting Polish artist Mieczysław Kościelniak’s family and estate to give permission to use his haunting sketch. Thank you Anne Sebba for your patience and trust with your book cover. 

Design by Jet Purdie

Art Direction by Steve Marking

Creative Direction by Nick Shah

Published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson / Orion Books / Hachette UK

Design by Jet Purdie

This is a non-official, personal challenge project, that involved me re-jacketing books I had recently read.

Gazelle was traced from an old matchbox advert for Eder Bier (German beer)… but I added a veve style star for the eye.

Film stills from the amazing Devine Horsemen, Living Gods of Haiti documentary.

Design by Jet Purdie

This is a non-official, personal challenge project, that involved me re-jacketing books I had recently read.

by Philipp Von Boeselager

Design and photomontage by Jet Purdie

As well as meeting Hitler in person (scary!), Philipp also supplied the explosives for Operation Valkyrie - the attempt to kill Hitler. The bomb detonated, injuring Nazi scumbags and wrecking part of the Wolf's Lair in Poland ... but sadly Hitler didn't die.

Designing the Operation Valkyrie cover took me back to my film poster design days, where I comped-together grainy and blurry photos : )

by

Claire Mulley

Design by Jet Purdie

For the paperback edition I inverted the colours and moved the mountaineering photo to the back cover to make space for quotes. The image of Elzbieta Zawacka works better in the paperback colourway.

This is the incredible story of Elzbieta Zawacka, the WW2 female resistance fighter known as Agent Zo. Agent Zo was the only woman to reach London from Warsaw during the Second World War as an emissary of the Polish Home Army command, and then in Britain she became the only woman to join the Polish elite Special Forces, known as the 'Silent Unseen'. She was secretly trained in the British countryside, and then the only female member of these SOE affiliated forces to be parachuted back behind enemy lines to Nazi-occupied Poland. There, whilst being hunted by the Gestapo who arrested her entire family, she took a leading role in the Warsaw Uprising and the liberation of Poland.

Design by Jet Purdie

This is a non-official, personal challenge project, that involved me re-jacketing books I already owned.

by James McBride

Design and illustration by Lauren Peters-Collaer
Typography and hand lettering by Jet Purdie

I love Lauren Peters-Collaer’s designs so I really didn’t want to mess with her lovely typography… but lettering for a more UK market was requested. So I used charcoals sticks to hand-letter the title and did my best to be respectful of Lauren’s art.

by Tim Spector

Design by Jet Purdie

I designed Identically Different for Weidenfeld & Nicolson. Initially we explored DNA helices (supposedly that's the plural of helix) in a Matisse, Blue Nude paper cut-out style and another route with close-ups overlapping rainbow coloured fingerprints... but in the end we settled on two peas in a pod : )

Thanks for the work Steve!

by Antony Beevor

Design by Jet Purdie
Art Direction by Steve Marking

Based on the Russia: Revolution and Civil War, 1917—1921 paperback series style

Design by Jet Purdie

Self-initiated project

There are several lovely covers based on matchbox art, but this story was about firemen burning books, so I thought the art style was quite relevant.

If you like vintage matchbox art check out a book called Matchbox Labels by Jane Smith and Natasha Lomas.

HIGH-RES LAYERED FILES AVAILABLE FOR LICENSING

by Renee Salt and Kate Thompson

Design / photo illustration by Jet Purdie

This was a very smooth project. Even the rejected routes were strong. The stock photography gods had my back on this project. The author was lovely to design for. I have a lot of time and respect for anyone who has experienced the evil horrors of Auschwitz, or anything like it.

by Lex Noteboom

Design by Jet Purdie

Based on the Dutch edition cover by Thijs Hoogeland

I used the same stock image, but re-created the glitch and TV lines, changed the background to an orange/red and chose a more appropriate title font for the UK market.

by Shashank Gupta

Design and Illustration by Jet Purdie

The first image is a rejected rough which I personally prefer final / approved cover (2nd image).

Art Direction: Jet Purdie
Design: Gray318 & Blacksheep

WINNER of the ABCD (Academy of British Cover Design) awards 2017.

Super Proof wooden art crates x75
Art Direction/Design: Jet Purdie
Joinery: Roland Platts-Mills
Foam: Cutfoam

Strait canvas slash on proof was sadly abandoned due to potential litigation from the Lucio Fontana estate.

Design: Jet Purdie

Design by Jet Purdie

This is a non-official, personal challenge project, that involved me re-jacketing books I owned or had read.

Design by Jet Purdie

Art Direction by Steve Marking

Creative Direction by Nick Shah

Published by at Weidenfeld & Nicolson / Orion Books / Hachette UK

by Dmitry Grozoubinski

Design by Jet Purdie

by Glenn McDonald

Design by Jet Purdie

This is a non-official, self initiated, personal challenge project, that involved me re-jacketing books I already owned.

Initially I considered using the correct B-25 Mitchell bomber aircraft nose art that featured in the 1970s film… but it is a naked woman clutching a lightning rod and riding a phallic bomb. While the female character looked strong with her Zeus-like lightning bolt … it all rather sexist, pin-up.

Instead, I borrowed the WWII US 553rd bomb squadron’s jacket patch art, which featured a scared looking cat clinging to a dropped bomb … which kinda reminded me of the war-shy story’s protagonist.

I believe the book was first published in 1961 by Simon & Schuster, so I used their old 60s logo… but S&S would not have placed it on the front cover. I also used an old quote from a newspaper that ceased trading in 1966.

by Laura Baggaley

Book cover design by Jet Purdie

Food is scarce in Newbeck. Rations are meagre. Everyone grows what they can on government-allotted Squares of land, using seeds and soil bought from mysterious megabusiness, the Green Cultivation Corporation.

One hot day, a strange girl rides into town wearing a sunhat as big as a bicycle wheel. She arrives alone, on a desert track from nowhere, full of questions no-one’s ever asked before. Local boy Sam is fascinated by her. Why won’t she talk about her family and where she lives? Why is she so curious about his way of life? And why can’t he get her out of his head . . .

A dystopian eco-romance for young adults, Dirt shows that even on stony ground, hope can grow.

Design and illustration by Jet Purdie
Title type lettering by Jan Bielecki

Art Direction and design: Jet Purdie
Illustration: Andrea de Santis

Design: Jet Purdie
Bird illustration: Annie Konst

I was handed this project with only two weeks before a final cover was needed for a sales visual. The project ended-up being fairly pleasant as I was left to just get on with it with minimal feedback.

The title font was inspired by WeTrsanfer.com and the colourway was inspired by the old Chicago Bears American football uniform.

It printed with two Pantones, foil, spot UV, emboss.

Design & Illustration: Jet Purdie
Title type hand lettering: Peter Strain

This is the paperback edition for Sarah Crossan’s Moonrise.

My concept for the paperback edition of the Moonrise cover was to show the protagonist’s older brother (Ed Moon) in a prison cell … only in a more pretty, hopeful, eye-catching and metaphoric way, with the moon representing their surname and the birdcage representing prison.

I was a little bit inspired by Leonard Cohen’s The Future album cover artwork, which is very logo like and has a nice balance of pretty and grim, with it’s blue heart, hummingbird and handcuffs.

Design and illustration: Jet Purdie

Art Direction and design: Jet Purdie
Illustration: Jet Purdie

Design by Jet Purdie

This is a non-official, personal challenge project, that involved me re-jacketing books I had recently read.

Art Direction / design by Jet Purdie
Illustration by Seth Pimentel / African Ginger

I really enjoyed working with Seth. Thank you so much for an amazing cover : )

Art Direction: Jet Purdie
Illustration: Alexis Snell

I created a re-jacket for a paperback, but sadly it never went to print

by Sheena Wilkinson

Book cover jacket by Jet Purdie

This fun project was commissioned by Sinéad O'Callaghan at Little Island Books.

It was the first time created a symmetrical cover, but it worked out nicely.

Thank you Sheena : )

Art Direction / Design: Jet Purdie
Illustration: Julian Crouch

by Kim Smejkal

Design by Jet Purdie
Young woman's face illustration by Arvitalya

Art Direction: Jet Purdie
Illustration: Patrick Leger

Shortlisted for The Kitschies Inky Tentacle (cover art) award 2015

Art Direction and type: Jet Purdie
Illustration: Patrick Leger

Art Direction / Design: Jet Purdie

Shortlisted for the ABCD (Academy of British Cover Design) awards 2016.

Art Direction / Design / Illustration: Jet Purdie
Concept inspired by The X-Files episode Never Again

Paperback Gryffindor House edition
Illustration by Levi Pinfold
Series Design by the amazing Andrea Kearney

When I started at Bloomsbury, Andrea asked if I wanted to put together four of the Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets covers. It took me a while to get my head around the fact that Bloomsbury were publishing 8 version of the same book - 4 hardbacks and 4 paperbacks, in the Hogwarts School house colours, inverting the Levi Pinfold artwork for the paperbacks. So in total, the 7 main Harry books would become 56 books!

It should’ve been fun but the Bloomsbury server and old Mac I was issued were painfully slow.

Production and I had to oversee the printing of these books at CPI, ensuring the colours matched the four version of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. The print run was stomach churningly large.

Hardback Gryffindor House edition
Illustration by Levi Pinfold
Series Design by the amazing Andrea Kearney

When I started at Bloomsbury, Andrea asked if I wanted to put together four of the Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets covers. It took me a while to get my head around the fact that Bloomsbury were publishing 8 version of the same book - 4 hardbacks and 4 paperbacks, in the Hogwarts School house colours, inverting the Levi Pinfold artwork for the paperbacks. So in total, the 7 main Harry books would become 56 books!

It should’ve been fun but the Bloomsbury server and old Mac I was issued were painfully slow.

Production and I had to oversee the printing of these books at CPI, ensuring the colours matched the four version of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. The print run was stomach churningly large.

Illustration & Design: Jet Purdie

I designed this cover in Penguin's The Originals series style. It was a really quick and fun project.

It's also a lovely book, written by the author when he was just seventeen. 

Design: Jet Purdie
Illustration and type: Nina Tara

When I joined Penguin Random House the Cream Buns and Crime cover rough was cream and blue, with gold foil and no girls. Unlike previous Murder Most Unladylike titles, Creams Buns and Crime is a collection of stories and the plan was to make it have a point of difference... but I felt it was going off brand. Without the girl's on the cover and the bright background colour it felt a tad grandma cozy crime. But in the end it looked great, and all the additional energy it took to keep it on brand was well worth it.