Final Covers:
Working Sketches:
Anna Blundy Series
Designer: Helen Crawford, White Crush Design
Illustrator: Helen Crawford, White Crush Design
Publisher: Little Brown Book Group, Sphere
Typefaces: Custom Illustrated
Specials: Matte coating and a spot UV on the illustrations
This is a stunning and unique series of covers. These pieces
become even more intriguing when we understand Helen's creative
thought process. Thanks Helen!
—Charles Brock
The Anna Blundy books focus around the character Faith Zanetti, a sassy female war correspondent heroine, that through the series travels the world and gets herself in lots of tricky fixes. The main aim for the covers was to convey the sense of humour of the main character, as well as her femininity and her feistiness with the aspects of politics, travel and adventure. To achieve this, we initially thought we could focus each cover around the country it was based in. For example, use skylines or landmarks to position the books and get an element of the heroine as well. We were able to develop this idea so that the final series was a bit more subtle. For example, in the Neat Vodka cover, the country reference is Russia, hence the babushka doll. The vodka swilling, cigarette smoking Faith is shown through the fag hanging out of the doll's mouth. Similar references are made on the other covers; a lighter with the Italian flag on it (Milan) and a cocktail stirrer with a pharaoh's head on it (Cairo). The covers were all developed from the initial Russian doll design, which was something that I thought instinctively would make a striking image that could appeal to a predominantly female audience.
Once the cover route had been decided on, there was a clear and uncomplicated working process to the final series. Although the designers at Little Brown nearly went for a different patterned cover with illustrations by Corinna Radcliffe.
The illustrations for these covers were done in-house at Crush and all the type on the cover, including quotes is hand drawn or handwritten. The colour palette is dramatic and helps emphasize the thriller side of the books whilst remaining fun and female.
