Cover Art Reveal and Reception

The cover comes off the easel at seven o’clock. Until then it stays under cloth, and nobody in the room except three people has seen it — including, at time of writing, most of the publishing team.

What happens on the night

Doors at six thirty, with drinks and a wall of framed roughs from the four-month design process: nine thumbnails, three full-color routes and the two near-final versions that lost. Noor and Tom will walk the wall at a quarter to seven and talk through why each one was rejected, which is far more interesting than why the winner won.

The reveal itself is short. After it, Elena reads the two pages the artwork is drawn from — a passage that will not otherwise be published until the book itself appears next spring.

Why come

If you have ever wondered how a novel turns into an image, this is the only part of the process that ever happens in public. Cover design is normally invisible: decisions made in studios and sales meetings, argued out over months, and then presented to readers as though the picture had always existed. For one evening it will be taken apart in front of you, by the people who made it, with the losing versions still on the wall.

There will also be the first fifty proof copies of the novel available, unsigned and slightly imperfect, at cost.

How to take part

Admission is free and unticketed, but the room holds a hundred and it has filled early every year. Come at six thirty rather than seven if you want to see the roughs properly.

Questions are welcome throughout — this is a reception, not a lecture, and the design team have been warned. If you work in illustration or design and want a longer conversation, Noor is staying until close and has agreed to look at portfolios, informally and honestly, for anyone who brings one.